“Yes, I am better,” answered Henderson, briefly, and he scowled and walked on, but there was a look in his sunken eyes that Reid did not care to see.
Henderson, in fact, still nourished the bitterest animosity against the man who held his secret, and who had treated him with such insolence and disrespect. Nor as his health returned did he forget the loss of Brown Bess. He blamed Reid for this, and hated the groom with a deadly hatred that grew and grew.
And during the days of his convalescence a letter came to him which did not tend to make him any happier. It was from Mrs. Temple, but was of a very vague and unsatisfactory nature.
“I am sorry to hear you have been ill,” it began, “but the address we talked of was not forthcoming, so I could not send it. J. T. wrote to his uncle certainly, but the sole address he gave was Paris, and moreover he said he was leaving that city next day. I can not help thinking it looks suspicious, but on his return we may learn more, as he mentions that in another week or so he would arrive at Woodlea. If I hear anything I will let you know; in the meanwhile perhaps you had best not come here. Yours very truly,
“R. T.”
CHAPTER XXV.
THE BRIDE.
Miss Webster was agreeably surprised when she received her nephew Ralph’s answer to her letter in which she had told him of May Churchill’s marriage.
It was a quiet, ordinary letter, and mentioned that affair in the most commonplace manner.
“My dear Aunt Margaret,” Miss Webster read with a considerable feeling of relief. “I received your letter telling me of the marriage of your pretty young friend, and I am sure we will all join in wishing her every happiness. But what I don’t quite like about the matter is its secrecy. A secret marriage is, I think, always unfair to the woman; and I understood from you that this Mr. Temple was his uncle’s heir, by the will of his grandfather, in the event of the elder Mr. Temple leaving no children. Now, if this is so, why should your Mr. Temple be afraid of his uncle, and prefer to cast a slur on the woman he has married, when his uncle can really (I presume) eventually do him no harm? However, it is no affair of ours.