Suddenly, all in one moment, as it seems to us, without any warning, we hear a loud voice outside the door, a heavy footstep, a rapid turning of the handle, and George Ashurst is in the room.
I make one desperate effort to rise and recover the dignity my attitude has destroyed, but Duke, with a strong detaining grasp, prevents me. I get only as far as my knees, and from that position glare at my brother-in-law as though I would willingly devour him.
"I took your offer of a bed, after all," he is beginning, when something in the situation strikes him as odd. He meets my eyes, and breaks down. "Oh, ah! I had no idea—I didn't know, you know." He stops, hopelessly, looking as ludicrously silly and puzzled as even I could wish him.
"Neither did I," declares Marmaduke, with a laugh, "until half an hour ago. But it is all right, Ashurst; we have made it up; and when I do go abroad, I will take my wife with me."
"Didn't I tell you all along how it was?" cries George, enthusiastically (he had not; but by a superhuman effort I refrain from contradicting him). "I declare to you," says he subsiding into a chair, "I was never so glad of anything in all my life before."
There is a minute's pause. Then 'Duke, turning, lays a light caressing touch upon my shoulder as I kneel beside him. He speaks in a very low tone.
"We are all very glad, I think—and thankful," he says, with the softest, tenderest smile.
All was ended now, the hope, and the fear, and the sorrow;
All the aching of heart, the restless, unsatisfied longing;
All the dull, deep pain, and constant, anguish of patience!