And yet the heart of each was strangely sore. Neva thought of what “might have been,” and sighed in her inmost soul that the husband her father was supposed by her to have chosen for her was not the one her heart most longed for. And Rufus mourned as bitterly as ever in his soul for his lost young wife, and felt that he should never be comforted.
Craven Black and Lady Wynde watched them as they approached the house, and the lip of the former curled, as he muttered:
“So fade the griefs of the young! Unstable as water, Rufus is already this girl’s lover!”
“They are mutually pleased,” murmured Lady Wynde. “Her father’s supposed wishes and this young man’s interesting melancholy will soon efface Lord Towyn’s image from Neva’s mind, if it has made any impression there.”
It seemed indeed as if the opinion of the worldly-wise conspirators would be justified.
The young couple halted upon the lawn, and Neva’s gravity and the melancholy of Rufus began to disappear, when the lodge gates swung open, and three gentleman came riding up the avenue.
The long twilight had begun, and even Neva’s keen eyes could not recognize the new-comers at that distance, and she chatted merrily to Rufus, who answered as lightly. But as the horsemen came nearer, and Neva regarded them more closely, a sudden silence fell upon her, and a strange shyness seized her.
It was a critical movement in the progress of the game which Craven Black and Lady Wynde were playing, and these new-comers had arrived in time to give a new turn to it.
For Neva recognized them as the three guardians of her property—Sir John Freies, Mr. Atkins, and the young Lord Towyn!