“God protect you both, and give you counsel,” he whispered, half speaking to himself. “Julie, you will help her now.”
“Help her!” panted Julia. “Why, it is a time of joy, Mr Bayle; and you don’t seem glad.”
“Glad!” he said in a low voice, looking at her wistfully. “Heaven knows how I should rejoice if there were good news for both.”
The next minute he and Sir Gordon were arm-in-arm walking about the square; for though Bayle had left the place intending to go to his own rooms, Mrs Hallam’s house seemed to possess an attraction for them both, and they stayed within sight of the quiet little home.
Volume Three—Chapter Five.
The Wife Speaks.
Sir Gordon was the first to break the silence, and his voice trembled with passion and excitement.
“The villain!” he said in an angry whisper. “How dare he write to her! She suffered, but it was a calm and patient suffering, softened by time. Now he has torn open the wound to make it bleed afresh, and it will never heal again.”