Lady Ruxley had arranged with one of the servants that she was to be notified whenever Mr. Dredmond and his wife should come. Consequently she had received the intelligence of their arrival almost immediately.
She knew that Adrian would make a clean breast of everything, and she reasoned that it would be the best time now for Herbert to be introduced to his brother and their friends, and have his future position in the family established at once.
She had kept the young man with her until Lady Randal returned from Paris, when he insisted upon returning to his old quarters until his existence should be made known to his brother; and this meeting with Sir Charles had caused him many sleepless nights and much anxious thought. He had hesitated now with an undefinable dread at his heart about making his appearance, but, after a second thought, he had yielded to Lady Ruxley’s command, feeling that it would be better for all parties to have the matter settled for all time.
She had learned to love the quiet, gentle young man during the short time he had been with her; he was so attentive and entertaining that he made her forget her bodily ailments, while he shamed her by his own patience and submission into repressing her fretfulness and grumbling.
She seemed to have grown younger since she had had this new object in life to interest her, and she now entered the room in a brisk, decided manner, her wrinkled face all alive, and her keen eyes on the alert to watch and read every movement and expression.
Lady Randal started up wildly as they entered.
“How came you here—what right have you to come here?” she demanded, almost fiercely.
“The right of a free man, mother,” was his quick but firm reply.
“Ha!” exclaimed Lady Ruxley, bitterly. “I suppose you did not fill up the measure of your wickedness in your youth, Helen, and so you must needs hide this innocent child, denying him all love and care, and his rightful place in his own home.”
“Spare me now, aunt—I suffer enough,” groaned the unhappy woman, who had sunk back trembling again at her son’s reply.