The next instant she was gone.
* * * * *
Patch turned the corner of danger just before cock crow.
With his heart singing, Lyveden went for a walk. He chose the old way—the way he had trod so often with Patch by his side and Valerie in his heart. My lady had filled his cup. The knowledge that Patch would live had set it brimming. He saw the dawn up and felt jubilant. He found new beauties of Nature at every step. His sympathy with my lady was a thing detached. It could not cloud his happiness. Eaton Square was forgotten. There were only she and he and Patch in all the world….
He came to The Leather Bottel, borrowed a razor of an old groom, and presently took a bath under a pump. Later he sat long over a joyous breakfast.
When he came back to the Home, there was Valerie. She just ran to meet him.
"I'm so glad, I'm so glad," she said. Then her lip quivered, and she turned away.
Anthony's heart smote him for his late selfishness. For as good cause to congratulate her, he would have given anything.
They went up to Town together by the same train.
The feverish haste with which she climbed into "a third" was almost comical.