Rose arrested her impatient steps, and gazed after her.
"Whatever is the matter? How strangely ill she looks! And she says the marriage is to come off with de la Chasse! I wonder whether that's gospel: or nothing but a blind? When the wedding-morning comes, we may find Jock o' Hazeldean enacted in real life. It would be glorious fun!"
Mr. St. John was pacing the room when Adeline went in. He met her with a sunny smile, and would have held her to him. But Adeline de Castella was possessed of extreme rectitude of feeling: and she now knew that in two days' time she should be the wife of the Baron de la Chasse. Alas! in spite of the fears that sometimes assailed her, she had, from the beginning, too surely counted on becoming the wife of Mr. St. John. She evaded him, and walked forward, panting for breath.
He was alarmed as he gazed upon her. He saw the agitation she was in; the fearful aspect of her features, which still wore the ghastly hue they had assumed in the cabinet. He took one of her hands within his, but even that she withdrew.
"In the name of Heaven, Adeline, what is this?"
She essayed to answer him, and could not. The palpitation in her throat impeded her utterance. The oppression on her breath increased.
"Adeline! have you no pity for my suspense?"
"I--I--am trying to tell you," she gasped out, with a jerk between most of her words. "I am going--to--marry him--de la Chasse."
He looked at her for some moments without speaking. "You have been ill, Adeline," he said at length. "I saw last night the state you were in, and would have given much to remain by you."
"I am not wandering," she answered, detecting the bent of his thoughts. "I am telling you truth. I must marry him."