“Not more than I,” she replied. “I thought you were in India.”
“And I thought you were—” He hesitated.
“Yes,” she said, “I know where you thought I was; but I am not, you see. That was all changed long ago. Have you heard nothing about us since you left Sothernshire?” she went on. “Do you not know that Greystone was sold—that we left it soon after my father’s death? Do you not know about,” she glanced at her deep mourning dress, “do you not know that I am quite an orphan now?”
“Yes,” he said in turn; “yes, I know that—I saw it in the ‘Times.’”
His tone was grave and sad. A feeling of self-reproach crept through him as he recalled the half-bitter sympathy with which he had seen the announcement of Mrs. Methvyn’s death.
“She has her husband to comfort her,” he had said to himself. For once, in some fashionable record of “arrivals in town” he had seen the names of “Mr. and Mrs. Fawcett from Barnstay Castle;” and till this moment when he met Cicely Methvyn again, a doubt of her marriage having taken place had never crossed his mind. There fell a slightly awkward pause. In the presence of a third person, and that person a stranger, Cicely could not speak to Mr. Guildford of her mother’s illness and death as she would have liked to do, nor could he say anything to lead her to do so. At last Bessie came to the rescue. Amazed by the unexpected discovery of her brother’s acquaintance with the pasteur’s niece, Mrs. Crichton had been startled into keeping silence for much longer than was usual with her. “It is just like a story,” she said to herself in an awe struck whisper. Suddenly glancing at Mr. Guildford, a new idea struck her, “Oh! Edmond,” she exclaimed, “you have taken off your shade. Oh! how very wrong of you, and the light in this room is so strong!”
She darted to the window and began drawing down the blinds.
Mr. Guildford looked annoyed. “It does not matter for a few minutes, Bessie,” he said.
Cicely glanced at him. There was nothing in the appearance of his eyes, dark and keen as ever, to suggest injured or enfeebled powers of sight.
“My eyes are much stronger now,” he said to Cicely. “I strained them when I was in India, but they are recovering now.”