"Who is Kenmore?"
"Oh! Don't you know? Vi is engaged to him. In fact, they were to have been married last year if it hadn't been for that nasty accident of hers."
"What was that?"
"Oh! Haven't you heard? She was thrown from her horse in the hunting-field. Came down on her back, poor girl. It was an awful thing. We were afraid she would not get over it at first, and then, when she seemed to have taken a turn, the doctors discovered that the spine was injured, and said she would have to lie on her back for months. It's been a terrible time for her."
"It must, indeed. How long is it since her accident?"
"Oh, nine months or more. She is a great deal better now. She gets out on the terrace, and is beginning to walk a little. They talk of having the wedding next May if she is well enough, so that it will just have been postponed a year. Poor girl, it has been awfully hard lines for her; but the doctor hopes she may be quite strong by that time. By-the-by, I've got a photo of her lying on the couch on the terrace. I'm just taking her a print of it; she hasn't seen one yet. I was at home a fortnight ago, and took it then."
"Then you are still keen on photography?"
"Yes, and I think this is a very good one. It was a nice clear September day, and I got a capital negative."
He was hunting amongst some papers in his pocket-book as he said this, and at last found the photo in question, and handed it to his friend for inspection. Captain Fortescue could not refrain from an exclamation of surprise as he looked at it. "You are astonished to see her so altered," said Captain Berington. "Yes, she is thinner, much thinner; still, she's wonderfully better than she was."
But it was not Lady Violet's altered appearance which had caused Captain Fortescue's exclamation of astonishment. He was not even looking at her; he was gazing with the greatest attention at something else in the picture. For on a low chair by the side of Lady Violet's couch, with her hat lying on the grass beside her, and with her lap covered with roses, which she was arranging in a china bowl standing on a garden table near her, was Marjorie Douglas!