To save my life I could not have told at that moment what else I had expected, or feared, that he might say, but certainly I took a deep breath of relief. “I am very glad,” I said. “It should be a happy alliance.”
“On the whole, I think it will be,” he returned thoughtfully. “Ingle’s done his share of hard living, and I once had a notion”—he glanced smiling at me—“well, I dare say you know my notion. But it is a good match for Elizabeth and not without advantages on many counts. You see, it’s time I married, myself; she feels that very strongly and I think her decision to accept Ingle is partly due to her wish to make all clear for a new mistress of my household,—though that’s putting it in a rather grandiloquent way.” He laughed. “And as you probably guess, I have an idea that some such arrangement might be somewhere on the wings of the wind on its way to me, before long.”
He laughed again, but I did not, and noting my silence he turned upon me a more scrutinising look than he had yet given me, and said:
“My dear fellow, is something the matter? You look quite haggard. You haven’t been ill?”
“No, I’ve had a bad night. That’s all.”
“Oh, I heard something of a riotous scene taking place over here,” he said. “One of the gardeners was talking about it to Elizabeth. Your bad night wouldn’t be connected with that, would it? You haven’t been playing Samaritan?”
“What was it you heard?” I asked quickly.
“I didn’t pay much attention. He said that there was great excitement at Madame Brossard’s, because a strange woman had turned up and claimed an insane young man at the inn for her husband, and that they had a fight of some sort—”
“Damnation!” I started from my chair. “Did Mrs. Harman hear this story?”
“Not last night, I’m certain. Elizabeth said the gardener told her as she came down to the chateau gates to meet me when I arrived—it was late, and Louise had already gone to her room. In fact, I have not seen her yet. But what difference could it possibly make whether she heard it or not? She doesn’t know these people, surely?”