She smiled at me with the malice of a fiend.
“It was a little call,” she said, “which I was paying upon your father. He was unfortunately not at home. No matter, I shall call again; I shall call again and again until I see him. I am in no hurry to leave. Eastminster is such an interesting place!”
Then my heart died away within me, and the light of my sudden happiness grew dim. She looked from one to the other of us, and her eyes were lit with a new fury. Some subtle instinct seemed to guide her to the truth.
“May I congratulate you both?” she asked, with a sneer in her tone. “A little sudden, isn’t it?”
We did not answer. I had no words, and Bruce remained grimly and contemptuously silent. She gathered up her skirts, and her eyes flashed an evil light upon us.
“After all,” she exclaimed, “it is an admirable arrangement! How happy you both look! Don’t let me keep you! I shall call later on this evening.”
She flitted away like a dark shadow and passed underneath the stone archway out of the close. I covered my face with my hands and moaned. It had come at last, then. All that I had done had been useless. I was face to face with despair.