"Dear Miss Graniger,
"I ran down as I said I should, and was awfully sorry to hear you were knocked over. I'll be down again soon, but I thought I would scribble you a word to say I shall keep my promise till I see you again."
Caroline's hand closed over the letter, and she lay back and let the nervous beat steady down in her heart and pulses.
The blind still flapped to and fro, but the golden streak had moved. A blackbird was piping in the clear air; she could hear the children's voices from the garden. The room had the same tranquil air as before, but the soft reposeful element had passed away; Caroline's eyes were closed, but she neither slept nor dreamed.
Remembrance was with her again, and with remembrance, heartache, yearning, and regret.
CHAPTER XVI
In June, when the gardens at Yelverton were glorious with roses (and Caroline's one task seemed to be hunting the children out of the strawberry-beds), Cuthbert Baynhurst and his wife returned to town.
They did not do this voluntarily; it was literally to see his mother die that Cuthbert was summoned back to England.
Rupert Haverford himself wrote the message that brought his half-brother home.