"Walk in, please." When he obeyed she opened the door of a tolerably large room at the back of the house, which looked into a small garden, behind which was a high dead wall, separating it from a manufactory of some humble sort.
It was very simply furnished—simple to plainness—yet neither ugly nor uncomfortable. Here his conductress left him, and disregarding her invitation to take a "cheer," he stood by the fire, his eyes fixed on the door in a state of painful expectancy. The sound of footsteps overhead, the murmur of voices made themselves heard, then the door slowly opened, and Elsie herself came in softly. She was dressed in black, but not in mourning, and looked deadly pale; her eyes seemed larger and darker than they used. She made a step or two into the room, and then stopped, holding out both hands, a smile curving her lip, which yet trembled, as if on the verge of tears.
Glynn seized the hands she offered, and, in the rapture of seeing her again, kissed them more than once. "I have imagined such horrors that I cannot restrain my joy at finding you," he exclaimed, his voice broken with intense feeling. "Why have you caused us this cruel anxiety?"
"How good you are to care so much," she said, looking at him with a wondering expression. "You will find I am not to blame. Oh! I feared I should never get leave to write to you, that you would think I had broken my promise! I wished to send for you long ago. I know we can trust you."
"We!" Good heavens! was she married, then? "We!" he repeated hoarsely,—"who—who do you mean?—your husband and yourself?"
"My husband!" a smile gleaming over her face. "I am not married! No—my father."
"Your father!" letting her withdraw her hands. "He is in America, is he not?"
"He is here—here in this house."
"I feel bewildered," said Glynn, taking the seat she pointed to and drawing it near her. "Will you not enlighten me?"
"I know so little, and my father wishes to tell you everything himself. Ah! you will see him so changed." A quick sob caught her breath, but she went on calmly: "He was changed enough when he first came, but he has been seriously ill. He caught a bad cold when travelling here, and has had inflammation of the lungs. He is so weak; will you come to him? Now he has agreed to let you come, he is quite anxious to see you."