'Hew?' she exclaimed, while with curiously-mingled emotions of delight and annoyance, Falconer, deeming that the time had come to depart, bowed himself out as Hew rang the bell.
'Ha!' thought the latter, 'she will not ride with me, and she has not driven out with them, so she expected this fellow! They have some secret understanding unknown to Sir Piers, most certainly. But they have not yet come to the third volume of their little romance!'
Mary read his thoughts and suspicions in his face, and her heart swelled with anger.
'We must stop this nonsense, Hew—or you must, I mean,' said she abruptly, and with flashing eyes.
'Stop it?'
'Yes, as I mean to be the mistress of my own actions; and the sooner your interference with me ends, the better for us both.'
'What do you mean?'
'What I say, sir!' replied Mary desperately, and with tears in her eyes as she swept from the room; for though she deferred to the years and affection of Sir Piers, she was resolved now to have neither mercy nor toleration for Hew, who eyed her malevolently as she withdrew.
Sweet indeed had been the love-passage between these two—Cecil and Mary—knitting their hearts closer together. Affection had been ensured to the full and been accepted to the full; but no promise had been given, and the future was vague as ever.
Cecil had a species of rival in Hew, certainly; but one that, strange to say, provoked no jealousy, anger, or sense of suspicion, though there were the influence and authority of Sir Piers to dread, together with what might be their ultimate result upon the gentle nature of Mary, who might be bent to accept the fate intended for her, as being but a portion of the inevitable. Besides, if the regiment were ordered suddenly abroad, the chances of their ever meeting again would be faint and few indeed.