Drusilla told her to set the table for tea. And Mr. Lyon directed her to tell Leo to put the horses to the carriage and bring it around to the door, and to get himself ready to drive to town.
Pina went out to obey both her orders.
“You will not be long absent this time, will you, Alick?” inquired Drusilla.
“I do not know, Drusa; but not a day longer than is necessary,” he evasively replied.
“But—can’t you give me some little idea, Alick, just to comfort me while you are away? Will you be gone a week, ten days, a fortnight—or how long do you think, dear Alick?”
“Now, Drusa, my child, you must not seek to bind me by any promise to return at any fixed time. See how it has inconvenienced me on this occasion, and without giving you much gratification either. Here, because I felt bound by the promise I had given you, I was compelled to drop my business at a most important crisis, and hurry on here just to see you for a few hours, and then hurry back. If you had not bound me by that promise, I might possibly, by staying a few days longer in Richmond, and putting my business in a better state of progress, have been enabled to come and stay longer with you. But as it is, I must be off at once. So you see the evil of binding a man to any fixed time.”
“Yes, Alick. I don’t wish to bind you to anything, dear. I will only trust that you will come back to me as soon as you can,” she meekly replied.
“As soon as it shall be proper to do so, I will come back,” he answered evasively.
Pina came in and set the table, and brought in the tea service and arranged it.
They—the faithful wife and faithless husband sat down together for the last time at that table.