“I certainly can not consider his proposal—until he makes it!”
She fled away, however, to confer with Noel Endicott upon the final closing accounts of the banking firm in which she was leaving a handsome sum as “special partner.”
Both the Lady of Lakemere and the old Solon were now playing at “hoodman blind.” And Hugh Conyers felt himself of little use now, for the clouds had all vanished. He was no fair-weather friend.
Elaine’s heart was light when she saw how completely Endicott had deceived himself. “Fate is still kind to me; no one knows, no one shall ever know,” she murmured, locking up a fond woman’s secret in her throbbing breast. It was not yet the appointed time of the final surrender of her self-sovereignty.
There was merriment at Lakemere, where Sara Conyers watched with a secret satisfaction the increasing intimacy of Noel Endicott with the beautiful girl who had so strangely drifted into a loving mother’s arms.
For Noel came daily now, “on business”—the road seemed to shorten every day with use—and the guest chamber of Lakemere which he most affected was his real headquarters. “There was so much to arrange for the retirement of the queen.”
“I shall let Senator Alynton know privately of Elaine’s projected absence,” wisely decided the sagacious Judge Endicott. “He should have a fair field,” and to this end the old lawyer counseled with Hugh Conyers, now busy and preoccupied.
“There is a strong, able, wise man,” said Endicott. “Just the man to make her a good husband!” The Judge was astounded at Conyers’ complete indifference.
“I may go over to England soon on a long assignment,” shortly said Hugh. “You might speak to my sister. These are, after all, things for women’s advice. I am no squire of dames. I think of giving up active journalism now.”
Endicott then reflected that Hugh Conyers’ face was rarely seen now in the happy coterie at Lakemere. The delicate details of covering all of the tragic past from Romaine Garland were all completed. “I wonder what is the matter with him?” growled Endicott. “I looked for his help to bring about this marriage.”