A shadow seemed to have fallen over both her and Bertie, and for a time they actually walked toward the Grange in absolute silence. And for Bertie to be silent was a very remarkable state of things.
It was in the midst of this silence that a voice was heard coming from a walk behind the shrubbery. It was the voice of Mr. Bartley Bradstone, and both Olivia and Bertie heard these words:
“It’s a deuce of a mess, a regular tangle; but we’ll get out of it. Just trust to me——”
Bertie looked up at Olivia, and saw her start and her dark brows come together.
“Who is that?” he asked, in a slightly lowered voice.
“That is Mr. Bradstone,” she said.
The same moment that gentleman and the squire came out upon them.
The squire started slightly, and Bartley Bradstone looked from one to the other with the suspicious, searching look peculiar to him. Then the squire’s face cleared, and he gave both hands to Lord Granville.
“Why, Cherub!” he exclaimed, in altogether happier tones than we have hitherto heard him use. “Welcome back! How well you look, my boy!”
“Doesn’t he, papa!” exclaimed Olivia, eagerly.