“Yes,” he said; “but I hope to have her back very soon.”
“And to think, she went just as Harry was coming home, and he never saw her.”
A quick, telegraphic look passed between the two young men which Kitty did not see, and would not have understood if she had. The baby had been brought in by this time, and Kitty put it on Hal’s lap for Kenneth to see how fatherly he looked.
“I am so glad her name is Connie,” she said. “Funny, Harry chose it without knowing the real Connie. Baby has not yet been christened, and I mean to have the big Connie her sponsor when she comes back. You think it will be soon?”
“I hope so,” Kenneth answered, and then, not caring to hear the subject further discussed, he said good morning, and went out, thinking to himself again, “I am glad I didn’t shoot him.”
CHAPTER XVII
LIFE AND DEATH
Connie was in her aunt’s house seeing that it was made ready for the count and countess, who were to arrive in the Etruria. Never since the Interlaken days had her heart ached as it was aching now, with its load of pain and horror. Kenneth was lost forever, and the man she had trusted was his cousin and the pretended husband of Kitty. She always shuddered when she thought of bright, sunny-faced Kitty and the baby. They must never know and I must never see them again, or Kenneth, she thought. “He is home by this time,” she said to herself on the morning after Kenneth’s meeting with Harry. “He has read my note. I wonder what he thinks and how he will meet his cousin.” Then there came over her a great longing to see him once more, to hear his voice, to know what he thought, and if there were any way out of it.
This idea, that Kenneth might in some way “get her out of it,” had never occurred to her until that moment when the maid entered bringing her a card.
“Kenneth!” she almost screamed, but smothered the sound. “Where is he? Show him up,” she said, and in a moment she was folded in Kenneth’s arms.
Forgetful of everything except that he was there, she had gone forward to meet him with a glad cry, and had not resisted when he held her closely to him and, kissing her passionately, said: “My Connie, my own at last! There is nothing between us, and I have come to tell you.”