"You will do the Lord's will, Madam," observed Patient, calmly.
"I will do my own!" cried Lady Ingram, more angrily than was her wont.
"Madam," was Patient's answer, "the Lord's will will be done; and in one sense, whether you choose it or not, you will have to do it."
"Leave the room! You are a canting hypocrite!" commanded her mistress, in no dulcet tones.
"Yes, my Lady," answered Patient, meekly, and obeyed.
"Now, if that woman had had the least spirit, she would have answered me again. A little more rouge here, Thérèse."
And Lady Ingram settled herself peacefully to her powderings, leaving Celia in a state very far from peace. She felt, indeed, extremely rebellious.
"Cannot I have my own choice in this matter?" she thought to herself. "Am I never to have my own way? Must I be forever the slave of this woman, who is neither my own mother nor one of the Lord's people? Shall I calmly let her take from me my only friend and counsellor? No! I will go back to Ashcliffe first; and if I break with Lady Ingram altogether, what matters it?" But the next minute came other thoughts. Patient had told her words of her grandfather's which she remembered,—"A soldier hath no right to change his position." And how could she put such an occasion to fall in her brother's way? Perhaps the Lord was drying up all the wells in order to drive her closer to the one perennial fountain. Ah! poor caged bird, beating against the cage! She little knew either how near she was to freedom, nor by what means God would give it to her.
The 21st of July dawned. Lady Ingram had risen a little earlier than usual, for she expected to see Philip, and had been grumbling all the previous evening at his non-appearance. He came in, dressed in full regimentals, about eleven o'clock, when his mother had been down for about an hour, and Celia for several hours.
"Good-morning and good-bye in one," he said, speaking hastily, and to both at once. "I have but ten minutes to stay. Marshal Villars has found a weak place in Prince Eugene's intrenchments at Denain, and he is going to draw his attention by an attack this morning on the Landrécies side, while we come up the other way and storm Denain this afternoon. Villars himself will be with us. Bentinck defends Denain with seventeen battalions and fourteen squadrons, mostly Dutch.[[14]] By the way, Le Marais has heard that Ned is in camp, but I have not come across him. You are sure to see him before long, if he be here."