"It is the accolade of knighthood," she said. Then they rose together and went toward the cottage, for the sun was high in the heavens.
[CHAPTER XII.]
"I SHALL LIVE AND NOT DIE."
This world is the nurse of all we know,
This world is the mother of all we feel,
And the coming of death is a fearful blow
To a brain unencompassed with nerves of steel.
They had further discussion that evening. Margaret told her young protector, after she had rested a little, how from that day she had been persecuted by the attempts of L'Estrange to force himself upon her. How at last she had found this little seaside village, and had rested there with her child, hoping its isolation and retirement would hide her. She told of her adventures in London, of the escape so ably managed by Adèle, of the discovery of her hiding-place, of that interview, and of her persecutor's concluding words, which, as she believed, had foreshadowed her present trouble.
"This is the mystery," said Mrs. Grey in conclusion, looking down at the scarf, "for a vague idea begins to dawn on me that I did not leave it on that seat on the sandhills. I remember, or I think I remember—all that night is in a kind of maze—looking for it, and being annoyed by the belief that M. L'Estrange had taken it away with him for some reason best known to himself."
"What!" said Arthur eagerly; "then, after all, this might be explained. Mrs. Grey, do you know I begin to have a dawning suspicion that your husband was not the person who took away your child? In the first place, to act in this way would be very unlike an English gentleman, such as, from your account, I imagine Mr. Grey to be; then that threat of the villain who was annoying you was un peu fort—one might possibly see daylight through it; then—"
He stopped, for Margaret was giving no attention to his reasons. "Not my husband!" she cried, and there came a sudden light into her face. "If I could only think so, but even to wish it would be wrong. Think of my poor little darling in strange hands!"
"That need scarcely alarm you. The person with whom your child was seemed to take every care of her."