"My darling wife, I love you, and will be true to you until death."
And those were the last words that for some time she heard him speak.
CHAPTER XV.
AN EXCITING INTERVIEW.
Lady Lanswell looked somewhat startled when her son entered the room. During those few months of his married life he had altered much; he looked taller and stronger; the handsome face was covered with a golden beard and mustache; he looked quite three years older than before his marriage.
He was a handsome stripling when his mother kissed him and sent him, with many injunctions as to study, to Dr. Hervey's, a handsome stripling, with golden down on his lip, and the hue of a ripe peach on his face; now he was a man of the world, assured, confident, easy in his carriage and bearing.
He looked at his mother with half-defiance, half-amusement in his eyes.
The strong, handsome woman, whose brave nature had never known fear, trembled for one moment when she remembered what she had to tell her son.
He bent down to kiss her, and for one moment her heart relented to her son. She steeled herself with the recollection that what she had done was for his benefit.