“Somehow,” he said, speaking hardly above a whisper, “I feel that all these misunderstandings are so superficial. D’you know, I believe that if you were to remain implacable I should simply collapse. I’ve never felt such a thing before in my whole life.”
It was the first time she had ever heard him speak in this way, and all her woman’s heart responded. “Oh, my dear,” she answered, putting her arm about his neck, “it’s no good pretending that we don’t belong to one another, is it?”
He looked at her with joy in his face, and led her towards the marble seat under the palms. “We’ve got a great deal to tell each other,” he said.
They had, indeed, so much to tell that the sun went down behind the Pyramids while yet they were talking, and the dusk gathered about them.
At length they arose and walked back to the house; but now they were laughing like two children, and as they crossed the lawn their arms were still linked together.
Kate Bindane, having returned from her drive, was standing at the drawing-room window as they approached the house.
“Great Scott!” she exclaimed, turning to her husband. “Come here, Benifett: just look at that!”
He arose from his chair, laying aside the Financial News which he had been reading; but he gave no more than a single glance through the open window. Then he returned to his newspaper, and looked at it with listless eyes and open mouth.
Two days later a telegram was received saying that Lord Blair would arrive from the south by special train on the following morning at ten A.M.
Soon after breakfast next day, therefore, Daniel presented himself at the Residency to take Muriel to the station. He was dressed in a suit of grey flannels; and as he crossed the hall, he was carrying his now famous old felt hat in one hand and his pipe in the other.