"Anything you have chosen," she answered in a low voice. Then abruptly she looked up at him. "Don't you know it?"
"My hopes were, maybe, so presumptuous."
They reached her chair under the limes. The golden dust of evening hovered in the chilling air; overhead the sky was a fading blue, and the fragrant leaves shivered together.
The grey eyes of Rose Lyndwood laughed into the fair face of Frances Beale, and for a moment she forgot that there were many to mark it.
"Till to-night, au revoir," she said, and her lips quivered.
He had possession of her hand for some seconds. When at last she drew up the glass and her chair was borne away down the Mall, he sauntered idly in the opposite direction.
The long walks emptied as the sky filled with deep and pure gold and the encroaching shadows merged into one darkness over the park.
Rose Lyndwood leant against the posts that bordered the grass, and drew a letter from his pocket, the latter part of which he re-read in the waning afterglow:
"... Marius is staying with Mr. Brereton now; I had his Confidences before he left. Had You heard You had pitied! He is very much in Love. He does not, it seems, know her Name, though she has his. He is awaiting her letter in an ardour Beautiful to behold.
"I tell You this to put a gloss upon his Selfishness. He is frankly Pleased at your Marriage and the prospect it unfolds for him. He desires you will write to him to let him know your Commands about his attendance at the Ceremony.
"My Lady has forgiven you; indeed, I think has forgotten that she Ever reproached you. She makes complaint of Miss Hilton's lack of Pedigree, but wishes her friendship. I think she is not Eager to go to London for the Wedding, which she desires to be very Private, so as not to make a show of a necessity; but this must be as you Wish.
"From what you say of Miss Hilton I think she must be Good and Sweet. Convey our duty to her; we shall be glad when you bring her to Lyndwood.
"We are very Quiet here now Marius has gone, and the white Roses that are Just coming to a bloom are become my best Companions.—Your dutiful cousin,
"Susannah Chressham.