Mrs. Grey had forgotten her presence. The touch aroused her. She looked up suddenly, and shaking off the flowing tears took the young girl's hands in hers. "Poor child!" she said gently, "it is too bad of me to frighten you like this. I fear I am very selfish and forgetful; but you know nothing—God grant you never may!—of miseries like mine. And now—will you think me ungrateful?—I fear I must ask you to leave me. It is necessary for me to go from here at once. And yet," she continued meditatively, "if you could stay till the last; he might return—"
"I shall not think of leaving you till I see you out of this place, Mrs. Grey," said Adèle authoritatively. "Listen," she continued, more rapidly; "I can arrange it all. I told you before of my talent for management, and now it has all come into my head quite suddenly. Ah, I should have made a first-rate diplomatist. You want to escape this rude man, and no wonder. If you do as I say we shall be off in a quarter of an hour. Leave your boxes with their address; I can see to their being sent after you. I see they are nearly packed. My cousin is at the end of the street waiting for me; he will fetch the carriage, which is only a few yards distant, and we can drive you to any station you like to mention. There you can take a ticket—not, if you like, to your own village, but to some place at no great distance, in case this man should follow us, and to-morrow you can go on to your own home."
There was something enlivening in Adèle's energy. Margaret's face brightened, she wiped away the remaining tears, and turning aside renewed the struggle which Adèle's entrance had interrupted with the obstinate trunk.
"Your plan would be perfection but for one thing," she said with the quiet dignity which had characterized her before this excitement had come. "My dear Miss Churchill, forgive me, you are young. I am a total stranger to you. Your mother, your friends—would they not be displeased? Is it right for you to do this?"
"It is, it is," said Adèle eagerly; "indeed, dear Mrs. Grey, mamma allows me to go everywhere with Arthur. She has full confidence in him."
"And Arthur?"
"Is my cousin. You saw him the other day. He is waiting for me now." In spite of herself Adèle blushed as she spoke.
Margaret looked at her in some surprise, but the ingenuous young face told its own tale. In her turn she was filled with admiration and love. She held out her hand. "Thank you," she said. That was all for a moment, as the tears were ready to flow; then after a pause, "What you have seen to-day will tell you more eloquently than I could that neither you nor your friends need have any fear on my account. If Arthur should become unmanageable at any future time, send him to me; I promise to cure him. And now, dear, I suppose we must be setting to work; I will accept your kind offer: it seems, after all, the best course to pursue."
It was done without the slightest awkwardness.
Margaret might have been a queen accepting a favor from one of her courtiers, and it was in this light that Adèle thought of the service she was rendering to her friend, for Margaret was, in her young, inexperienced eyes, a very queen by means of her beauty and charm. And then they set themselves to work without further delay. In a very few moments Margaret's hasty toilette was complete—a black shawl, the little close bonnet, a crape veil, the bright Indian scarf, from which she did not seem to care to separate herself, a tiny morocco-leather case, which might contain valuables of some kind, and a carpet-bag, which by Adèle's aid had been hastily filled with a few necessaries,—these were all; then the boxes were locked and labelled, the landlady's account was settled, and orders given to her to keep the boxes until they should be called for, Adèle promising that Arthur should perform this little service. It did not take very long. Adèle had scarcely been half an hour in the house when they left it together, Margaret closely veiled and not venturing to look around, Adèle gazing right and left to assure herself that they were not followed. Not a person was in sight on either side of the way, and she breathed more freely.