What had possessed her? What madness was this? Allan—she had dared so to call him, him the master of the house—my lady's husband!
So the man sat, gripping the old seat, and the girl stood there, covered with shame and confusion, not daring to lift her eyes, and silence fell on them both.
What strange mad fantasy was this? Should he waken in a moment to hear Dalabey's voice, as once before? But no, she was real at least, this little maid in her black dress and her head crowned with its shining glory.
But she had called him Allan, the name had seemed to come spontaneously from her lips, as he had called her Betty! He felt shaken, life had suddenly become fantastic to him, nothing seemed very real. It was after all a world of dreams; this too, was a dream. He could almost have welcomed the voice of Dalabey, but it did not come. So she stood there, with bent head and he saw something fluttering in her little hand.
"You—you have brought me a message?" he said, and his voice sounded strangely hoarse and discordant.
"Yes, sir, from—from my Lady!" She dropped him a little curtsey, he could see the flush still in her cheeks, could see that it even stained her white neck and her little ears. He rose and went to her and stretched out his hand. He hoped that she would look up but she did not, never once were the blue eyes lifted to his own. Why had she come, why had she come? He had not wanted her to come, yet she had come into his life after all. She was here, standing before him, not in the picturesque trappings of a byegone century, but in her modern dress, still he knew her well enough.
"Betty, Betty!" Betty who had kissed him, who had told him that she loved him.
He had hoped once that he might meet her in real life. He had pictured her, tried to dream that dream again, yet had never succeeded. And now that at last he saw her, could stretch out his hand and touch her, he knew that it were better that she had not come.
He put out his hand and took the telegram from her, yet did not look at her.
"You are—Betty Hanson, my wife's maid?"