A few minutes before she knew supper would be ready, Lily got up and changed her dress; and then she cast a longing look at the now growing packet of Angus Stuart’s letters. How right he had been when he had said that he wished she would leave La Solitude!
She made up her mind that to-morrow morning she would slip off to the Convalescent Home, and ask if they could put her up for a few days. When there she would be able to see Angus, and arrange never to go back to La Solitude again.
Though Lily tried to behave exactly as usual during the evening that followed, the Countess was well aware that something was wrong. She kept looking at the girl with a kind of furtive, anxious scrutiny.
“Did you have a pleasant drive?” asked Uncle Angelo. And Lily was able to answer, with some appearance of naturalness, “Yes, for we went a new way, and came to a most wonderful gorge. I thought it one of the loveliest spots I had ever seen!” And then she stopped, suddenly overcome by the recollection of what had happened there.
“You do not look well, Lily,” said the Countess anxiously. “You look very tired, my dear. Would you like to go up to bed at once, after dinner?”
Lily gratefully accepted. She hoped that very soon La Solitude would have become a memory—a memory of strangely mingled pain and pleasure, of regret and happiness. But now pain, regret and, yes, a hidden fear, predominated, and she longed, with a kind of desperate longing, to escape—now, at once, in the darkness, down to the Hôtel de Paris, to kind, sensible Papa Popeau, and to the man who loved her, and whom she loved!
For one wild moment she actually thought of doing so. And then she felt ashamed. After all, both Aunt Cosy and Uncle Angelo had been very kind to her, according to their lights. And she knew only too well how hurt and angry Aunt Cosy would be when she learnt that Lily had no intention of staying on at La Solitude all the winter.
CHAPTER XXVII
“I insist on knowing what is the matter, Beppo?” The Countess Polda gazed apprehensively at her son. Not even when he had been going through acute money trouble had he looked as moody and miserable as he looked now.
He had just arrived at La Solitude to hear that Lily had gone off to the Convalescent Home for the morning.