I found him standing on his feet, hat in hand, facing the door, where I entered—his face calm and happy in expression—and it warmed and brightened when I came towards him; catching my hands in his, he pressed them fervently, and, kissing me, asked,
“Have you missed me, darling?”
“Oh! very much, dear Rinaldo.”
“And I have been dreaming of you during my whole journey; I scarcely had sense enough left from reverie to attend to my business, and I have hurried back, leaving it half incomplete, to be arranged by lawyers.”
“But where is it you have been to, dearest?”
“Genoa and the frontier of Austria: an estate left me I was in danger of losing, through the perfidy of relations; but, thank heaven! their malice is defeated, and I am safe: now, love, come sit here by me on this sofa, and tell me all you have been doing. I left the night Somnambula was to be performed: tell me about it; did it succeed?”
I described the opera, and singing: its success, and subsequently the disappearance of Blanche with Lord Glenfells, the night before.
“Gone with Lord Glenfells! what an unwise action: but who is he?”
“A gay young Englishman, travelling on the continent for amusement; dear Blanche, who would have dreamed, after all the temptations she has evaded, who would have thought she would have acted thus?”
“No one in truth; it is very strange: your friend appeared so gentle, so indifferent to men’s society, and fond of solitude; of all women, I should have thought her the very last one to commit so rash an action.”