“Well, a married woman. They are more dangerous than the unmarried ones.”
“Well, then if you become a married woman yourself, you will be able to meet them on their own ground. There’s something in that, isn’t there?”
And although Mabin was astonished and rather alarmed by the suggestion, he argued her into consent to his proposal that he should write to Mr. Rose that very day.
It was astonishing how quickly the neighbors got over their prejudices against the color of “Mrs. Dale’s” hair when they discovered that the lady in black was the wife of Sir Geoffrey Mallyan. And although odd stories got whispered about as to the reason for her stay in Stone under an assumed name, it was in the nature of things as they go in the country, where each head weaves its own fancy, that the truth never got known there.
Before the newly united couple left “The Towers,” they were both present at the wedding of Rudolph and Mabin, who were married by the Vicar, under the offended eyes of Mrs. Bonnington. Indeed it is doubtful whether she would ever have consented to the marriage, if the accident to Mabin’s ankle, although it left no worse effects, had not made it impossible for her ever to ride a bicycle again.
And then, very quietly, and without warning Sir Geoffrey and his wife Dorothy went away, telling nobody where they were going. There was a breach now between them and old Lady Mallyan which could never be entirely healed. But in order that they might have a little time to themselves before they even pretended to forgive her, husband and wife went off to Wales together. And under the tender care of his wife, Sir Geoffrey began quickly to recover the health, the loss of which Dorothy remorsefully traced to the mad act of which she had so bitterly repented.
THE END.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES.
Florence Warden was the pseudonym of Florence Alice (Price) James.
The F. V. White & Co. edition (London, 1896) was referenced for most of the changes listed below and provided the cover image.