“Very well; I will attend you immediately,” Sir William responded; “but,” he added, as he regarded her anxiously, “what could have caused this sudden attack? I never knew you to faint before.”
A guilty stain shot for a moment into Lady Linton’s cheeks.
“I imagine the rooms are overheated, and I have not been quite myself this evening,” she said, which was true enough, for there had been a deadly sinking at her heart ever since her encounter with her brother’s former wife.
She glanced uneasily toward the door as she spoke, for she was in mortal terror lest she should chance to make her appearance there in search of her daughter, and she felt that she would rather drop dead, there at her brother’s feet, than to have those two, so long parted by her plotting, meet and become reconciled.
Her purpose now was to get him out of that house and away from London as soon as possible, and she resolved to stop at nothing to accomplish her object. It was a terrible blow to her to find that woman there. So many years had elapsed, during which she had kept silence, that she had grown to feel very secure in her position as mistress of her brother’s home, and she had fully expected that she would retain it as long as she should live, and had come to regard the threats which the injured wife had made in the past as so many idle words.
Life of late had looked brighter to her than at any previous time since her marriage. Percy had recently become engaged to a beautiful girl—one in every way worthy of him, and who, when she became his wife, would bring with her a noble dower; indeed, her father was so much pleased with his prospective son-in-law that he had himself proposed to relieve Linton Grange of all incumbrances, and thus all the burden entailed by his father’s profligacy would be lifted from the young lord’s shoulders.
Lillian’s début in society had been very brilliant; she was greatly admired and much sought after; so the mother’s cup of pride and joy in her children seemed to be full to the brim.
The only bitter drop in it was Lillian’s unrequited affection for Rupert, and Lady Linton had never relinquished the hope of succeeding in accomplishing even this marriage until after the young man’s return from America.
He had seemed very different since then; restless and preoccupied, but betraying at the same time an undercurrent of joy which told of some sweet hope cherished in his heart, the fulfillment of which he was eagerly awaiting.
His treatment of Lillian was courteous and respectful, but not calculated to inspire anyone with the belief that he regarded her with feelings of more than ordinary friendship, and thus Lady Linton had begun to fear that her favorite and his magnificent fortune were likely to slip from her grasp and become the prey of some more fortunate beauty and belle.