But Kate broke from him and darted into the house, past Lady Geraldine, who was just coming out, and who noticed with surprise the disturbed appearance of the two cousins. To Dutton she seemed a good angel sent to invalidate the spells of an evil one. As the reader knows, she alone had been entrusted with the secret of his marriage, and he now briefly explained that Kate was bent upon betraying his meetings with Bluebell, and entreated her, if possible, by any stratagem, to detain her for awhile.
Geraldine, fully alive to the importance of the request, exclaimed with a gesture of impatience—
"How provoking! when you were to have told your own story to-morrow! Be quick, Mr. Dutton, don't lose a moment, and I will undertake to keep Kate and Mrs. Barrington quiet till they can do no further mischief."
A very grateful glance from Harry as he sprang away; and how he fared in the dreaded interview is already known to the reader.
CHAPTER XLI.
A LOCK OF HAIR.
For which they be that hold apart
The promise of the golden hours;
First love, first friendship, equal powers,
That many with the virgin heart.
In Memoriam.
Another year had gone by since the denouement at Bromley Towers. The war was over, peace proclaimed, and what remained of our armies had returned from the East.