Roma had seen the arrival of her pastor, and came out to meet him.
They shook hands cordially and then went into the house.
Roma had intended on that day to tell her old friend the story of the great fraud that had been passed upon her and the strange position in which she found herself in regard to her betrothed, Will Harcourt; but the subject was so painful, and so calculated to give pain, and the old rector was so happy in the return of the favorite of his flock, that she forbore to mar his enjoyment. Some other time would do as well, she thought, and so she put off the revelation to “a more fitting season.”
The rector took an early dinner with her and her little ward, and went away early in the afternoon.
Roma sat on the vine-clad front porch of her house, knitting, and watching the play of the two children on the lawn, when, happening to look down the locust avenue, she saw a man approaching the house, whom, to her disgust, she recognized as Hanson.
CHAPTER XIV
SIEGE AND DEFENSE
Calling all self-controlling powers to her aid, Miss Fronde started up, ran down to the lawn, took the children each by a hand, hurried them into the house, and shut and locked the door, and without a word of explanation to the astonished little ones, who stood staring at her, she dropped into a chair, and thought rapidly, as strong-minded women do think in emergencies.
Where did Hanson come from? What had brought him here? During the five months she had stayed in Washington she had neither seen nor heard from him. He had given no sign of his existence to her nor to any of her friends. He had not responded to her suit for the setting aside of the fraudulent marriage ceremony, and since the decision of the court, which declared that ceremony null and void, and set her free, he had seemed as much lost to the world as if he had been dead.
But had he been keeping her in view all this time, while she remained in Washington, and had he only waited until she came home to her remote and secluded old country house, where he might suppose her to be unprotected, and at his mercy, that he had hunted her so quickly to her retreat? She was only five days from Washington, and he had found her.
The next moment she heard his step upon the porch and his knock at the door.