They came on chance, they said, but the tea belied them. I saw Cruikshank raise his head, like the guardian of a herd, as he caught the sound of their voices, then on tip-toe he crept through an opening in the hedge that gives access to a path leading to the farmyard. I suppose he had tea with the farmer. He never appeared again till they had gone.
It was as they rose to leave that Miss Teresa held out her hand, and said: "I wish you could have met our nephew, Mr. Bellairs. It would be so nice for you to know each other in London. I would have told him to look you up there, but I didn't know your address."
I thanked Heaven from the bottom of my heart that she did not. It would be difficult to know the best thing to do with that young man if he came round to Mount Street.
"Where does he live in London?" I asked, politely.
She gave me the address of his rooms in Chelsea, and I made a mental note of it.
"He's gone already, then?" said I, with a wild hope rising in me.
"Oh, yes—he went yesterday with Miss Fawdry. They're to be married from my sister's house in London directly they get over."
There may have been more said than that before they actually departed. I cannot recall a word of it, for after that I knew my failure was complete. She had gone to learn the bitter lesson of forgetfulness, and I was powerless to help her now.
"You needn't come to the gate," whispered Bellwattle in my ear; so when I had shaken hands with them I sat down again on the seat under the nut trees trying to see one faint glimmer of hope where there was none.
It was then, as ever he does when life is offering me of its blackest, that Dandy came and, sitting down at my feet, stared, full of comprehension, into my face.