Colonel Mapleson bowed acquiescence.
“Hand me a glass of water, if you please,” he said to Geoffrey, and glancing toward a table on which there was a water service. “We will do what we can for her ourselves, without having any prying servants about. I do not believe my wife ever fainted before.”
He sprinkled her face vigorously, bathing her temples, and chafing her hands, to restore circulation.
She began to recover almost immediately, and before the expiration of ten minutes was able to sit up, and called for water to drink.
Her self-possession returned at the same time, and looking up in her husband’s face, with her usual brilliant smile, as she passed back her empty glass, she remarked:
“I hope, William, that you and your guests will excuse my sudden indisposition. It was a startling greeting, a sorry welcome to strangers. But you did not present me to the other gentleman.”
She glanced inquiringly about for Geoffrey, who was standing a little back of her.
As their eyes met, she started, opening her lips as if about to address him, believing him for the instant to be Everet.
But her mind worked very rapidly, and she checked herself.
She remembered that she had seen a young man at Yale who strangely resembled her son, and that his name was Huntress.