Mr. Muir began talking about the weather as if it were the only subject in his mind, and soon afterward Madge went to her room with bowed head and downcast heart.
"I have no chance," she sighed. "He loves her, and that ends all. He is loyal to her, and will be loyal, even though she breaks his heart eventually, as I fear. It's his nature."
CHAPTER XXII
DISHEARTENING CONFIDENCES
Under a renewed impulse of loyalty Graydon intercepted Miss Wildmere as she was going to her room, and said: "The clouds in the west are all breaking away—they ever do, you know, if one has patience. We can still have our drive and enjoy it all the more from hope deferred."
"I'm so sorry," she began, in some embarrassment. "Of course I couldn't know last night that it would rain in the morning, and so promised Mr. Arnault this afternoon."
"It seems as if it would ever be hope deferred to me, Miss Wildmere," he said, gravely.
"But, Graydon, you must see how it is—"
"No, I don't see, but I yield, as usual."
"I promise you Sunday afternoon or the first clear day," she exclaimed, eagerly.