He nodded, and turning quickly round, left the room.
I hastened after him with all my speed, and dashing downstairs was making for the porte cochère, when a shadow beside the doorway caught my eye. I stopped. It was O'Grady; he was leaning against the wall, his head buried in his hands. A horrible doubt shot through my heart. I dared not dwell upon it; but rushing towards him, I called him by his name. He turned quickly round, while a fierce, wild look glistened in his eyes.
'Not now, Hinton, not now!' said he, motioning me away with his hand; and then, as a cold shudder passed over him, he drew his hand across his face, and added in a lower tone, 'I never thought to have betrayed myself thus. Good-bye, my dear fellow, good-bye! It were better we shouldn't meet again.'
'My dearest, best friend! I never dreamed that the brightest hour of my life was to throw this gloom over your heart.'
'Yes, Jack,' said he, in a voice low and broken, 'from the first hour I saw her I loved her. The cold manner she maintained towards me at your father's house——'
'In my father's house! What do you mean?'
'When in London, I speak of—when I joined first—your cousin—'
'My cousin!'
'Yes, Lady Julia. Are you so impatient to call her wife that you will not remember her as cousin?'
'Call her wife! My dear boy, you're raving. It's Louisa Bellew!'