“I am not thinking of leaving at present,” he replied quickly. “I should certainly not leave till I have done what I undertook to do; that is to say, till I can resign my charge of Colonel Methvyn to Dr. Farmer again.”
“Oh! thank you. I am so glad to be assured of it,” said Cicely gently, but in a tone of great relief.
“Eventually,” continued Mr. Guildford, “I have quite made up my mind that it will be best to leave. I think I see my way to doing more good elsewhere and in a different way.”
But though Miss Methvyn listened courteously she made no reply which could have led him to say more.
“She thinks of me only as her father’s doctor,” reflected Mr. Guildford with a little bitterness when he had said good-bye and was on his way home. It was disappointing. He had rather looked forward to telling her of his change of plan, of his rapidly maturing belief that by increased study and research, he might fit himself for a position which he had long aspired to, and had considerable chance of attaining—a position which would put him in the way of fulfilling his darling ambition, that of doing something worth the doing for the science of medicine. He had fancied she was the sort of woman to have entered into his hopes and sympathised with his aspirations—he had, in his own mind, begun to think of her, young as she was, as belonging to the rare class of women of whom a man might make friends. He had all but said so to her this very afternoon, and she had then seemed thoroughly to enter into his feelings and opinions. But this evening he felt unreasonably chilled and disappointed.
“After all,” he reflected, “I suspect it is safest to restrict one’s relations with women in every direction. There are plenty of good staunch men in the world to make friends of, fortunately—and a gentle, clinging creature like poor little Geneviève even, would be more satisfactory in the end. What can that fellow Fawcett be thinking of to involve her in any underhand flirtation—I can’t make it out.”
His brow darkened as he meditated upon what he had seen. He determined to watch for an opportunity of giving Geneviève a word of advice.
END OF VOL. I.
VOLUME II.