Her voice faltered, and she seemed on the point of breaking down.
"What news have you of the general?" asked Lord Lydstone, rather abruptly, as though to change the conversation.
"Good enough. He is all right," said Mrs. Wilders, dismissing inquiry for her husband in these few brusque words.
"I can't think of him just now," she went on. "It is you and your great sorrow that fill all my heart. Oh, Lydstone! dear Lord Lydstone, the pity of it!"
This tender commiseration was very captivating. But the low, sweet voice seemed to have lost its charm.
"I think I told you yesterday, Mrs. Wilders, that I intended to return to England," said Lord Lydstone, in a cold, hard voice.
"Yes; when do you start?"
"To-morrow, I think. Have you any commands?"
"You do not offer me a passage home?"
"Well, you see, I am travelling post haste," he answered. "I shall only go in the yacht as far as Trieste, and then on overland. I fear that would not suit you?"