"I have not been much there," he said; "my time has mostly been passed abroad. My longest stay at the Deane was when poor Nelly was there with Sir Richard; and, of course, I can't expect her to go back to the scene of all her trouble so soon; so I must go alone."
"Can't you?" said Margaret, with a sudden flush on her cheek; "I should have thought it would have been her greatest, her best consolation. But people feel so differently," she said absently; and then made some remark about the beauty of the day. Her companion wondered at her strange manner. He took the hint to change the subject.
"Shall you be long away?" Margaret asked him.
He would have been only too happy to tell her that the duration of his absence would depend entirely on her pleasure--to tell her what was the truth, that he was leaving her now because he loved her, and hoped the day might come when he might try to make her love him; when respect for her position should no longer bind him to silence.
He felt he could not remain in her vicinity during the time that must elapse before he could venture to acknowledge his feelings, without the risk of offending her, perhaps losing her by their premature betrayal, and he had determined to go to Scotland and remain there until the time should be near when she thought of leaving Chayleigh.
Then he would return and take his chance. If she would accept the love, the home, the fortune he had to offer her, he almost dreaded to think what happiness life---which had never been adorned with any very brilliant hues of imagination by him before--would have in store for him.
When she asked him, in her clear, sweet voice, whose tones were to-day as pure and untroubled as if she had never spoken any words but those of the gladness which should so well have beseemed her youth, that careless question, he felt all the difficulty of the restraint he had imposed upon himself.
"I am not quite certain," he replied; "I daresay I shall find a great deal to do at the Deane, and a good deal will be expected from me in the way of sociability--a tribute, by the way, which I render very unwillingly. I--I suppose you will not leave Chayleigh this winter?"
"I don't think my father has any intention of going anywhere," Margaret said; "and I shall remain with him until I leave him 'for good;'--as people say when they leave for the equal chance of good or evil. I believe, too, there is a chance of my brother's coming home."
"Indeed," said Mr. Baldwin; "that is good news. I didn't hear anything of it."