And that vow she intended to keep.
"If ever I forget what has passed here," she said to herself, "may Heaven forget me!"
To her servants she had never seemed colder or haughtier than on this night, when she kept them waiting while she registered her vow.
What shape was her vengeance to take?
"I shall find out," she thought; "it will come in time."
Chapter XIV.
Miss L'Estrange was standing alone in the small conservatory on the morning following her eventful conversation with Lord Arleigh, when the latter was announced. How she had passed the hours of the previous night was known only to herself. As the world looks the fairer and fresher for the passing of a heavy storm, the sky more blue, the color of flowers and trees brighter so she on this morning, after those long hours of agony, looked more beautiful than ever. Her white morning dress, made of choice Indian muslin, was relieved by faint touches of pink; fine white lace encircled her throat and delicate wrists. Tall and slender, she stood before a large plant with scarlet blossoms when he came in.
Lord Arleigh looked as he felt--ill at ease. He had not slept through thinking of the conversation in the balcony--it had made him profoundly wretched. He would have given much not to renew it; but she had asked him to come, and he had promised.
Would she receive him with tears and reproaches? Would she cry out that he was cold and cruel? Would she torture himself and herself by trying to find out why he did not love her? Or would she be sad, cold, and indifferent?
His relief was great when she raised a laughing, radiant face to his and held out her hand in greeting.