"It is beautiful!" he answered quietly. "It grips me afresh every time I see it. Mayne, too, admires it immensely. Did you know I have had Mayne staying with me for the past month?"
"No, indeed; but I am glad to hear it," she cried. "He was so interested in the house; and then, he is quite an authority on gardens, isn't he? You must have found him a great help."
"Yes," said Hubert absently. "That's very true; he has been a great help."
She sent a sidelong glance at him, and noted afresh the marked change in his expression. There was a look upon the mouth that went to her heart in an indescribable way. It made her long to beg his pardon for the things she had said to him that night. The indefensibility of her own conduct throughout smote upon her in quite a new way. Never before in all her life had she felt the salutary self-reproach which now reddened her cheek, tied her tongue, and seemed to leave her helpless before him.
"Oh," she thought, "if he knew how much stronger he is when he looks like that than when he is in one of those awful rages."
He was speaking, and she collected herself with a tremendous effort to listen.
"The effect of those middle windows, with the transoms, which we had such doubt about, is awfully good, to my thinking. It only needs one thing."
"One thing?"
"Which I must consult you about. I have come here on purpose to talk of it I feel, perhaps, as if my presence here may—to you—want a little explaining. I have come because I thought I ought to. When can you give me a few minutes?"
It was true then: there had, as she guessed, been a specific reason for his appearance. Strangely enough, she had never thought that it would be anything in connection with Lone Ash. Yet what more natural?