“When great warriors go out to battle,” he said, “they leave their most precious jewels in safe hands. Kenelm, these are my jewels, more precious to me a thousand times than all the jewels that ever came from Golconda’s mines. When I return, my friend and brother, I shall ask what you have done with my jewels, which I leave in your hands.”
“I will render you just account,” said Mr. Eyrle.
Then Sir Ronald took Lady Hermione’s hand.
“This, my dearest and most beloved wife, I leave also in your charge. You shall answer for her as you will answer for your own soul to God.”
“That will I do,” said Mr. Eyrle, cheerfully.
“You will help her, Kenelm, with all the business of the estate. She will not hear of any steward, or I would have appointed one. Stand between her and all trouble, Kenelm.”
“I will,” he replied, cheerfully.
Until the last moment of his life, Ronald remembered parting with Lady Hermione. How, when the final moment came, her womanly tenderness overcame everything else and she said such words to him as he never forgot! For the first time she told him how deeply, how truly, how passionately she loved him, for the first time he saw and understood the adoration she lavished upon him, and then, with those words still ringing in his ears, he kissed her lips. The next moment he was gone and Lady Alden lay in the long grass, sobbing alone!
CHAPTER XXXIV.
THE TOWERS.
The Towers, Kenelm Eyrle’s inheritance, was a large estate. Perhaps the prettiest and most picturesque part of it was that called Dower House, a large, open, healthy, airy house, standing by itself, close to the Holme Woods. The Dower House had been, in former generations, a retreat for the widowed ladies of the family, but of late there had been no widows, and the place had gone somewhat to decay. It was quite isolated; there was no other dwelling near it, no cheerful path led to a highway, no neighboring chimneys peeped from between the trees. It was isolated, solitary, secluded—the very spot where one might live and die unseen and unknown.