Scarcely had the table been cleared when Mr. Ellerslie entered the room. To Nell it seemed as if she might have parted from him no longer ago than the day before, so wholly unchanged was he from the picture of him which still lived so freshly in her memory. There was the long, grizzled hair parted down the middle, the short Vandyck beard and moustache, the black velvet skull cap, and the dark monkish robe which wrapped him from head to foot. There, too, was the set, mask-like face with its thousands of fine wrinkles, which from a little distance looked as if it were carved out of old ivory, a face which seemed to emphasize the pair of brilliant black eyes that looked out from under their heavy penthouse brows with an illusive something in them which reminded Nell strangely of Geoffrey Dare.
As he entered the room Miss Baynard rose and advanced to meet him with both hands outstretched. "Oh, Mr. Ellerslie!" she said, and in her voice there was a veiled emotion not far removed from tears, "how can I ever thank you enough, how ever be sufficiently grateful to you, for the glad surprise you have given me this evening? Surely you must be a necromancer, or the good wizard of a fairy tale, for to me it seems nothing less than a fairy tale to have one I hold so dear restored to me in this fashion."
Mr. Ellerslie took her hands in his, bent over them, and raised them for a second to his lips. "Nay, nay, my dear young lady," he replied, "if any thanks be due in the matter--though why there should be I fail to see--then must they fall not to my share, but to that of my nephew, Geoffrey Dare."
An involuntary "Oh!" broke from Miss Baynard. His nephew! It was a revelation which seemed to throw light on several things.
"It was Geoff who brought the child here at a late hour last night, asleep and perched on his horse in front of him. As to whom, where, and how he picked the youngster up, I must refer you to him in person."
"But when shall I see Mr. Dare? Is he not here?"
"At present he is not. Some business called him away in the course of the day. But I have his promise that he will be back not later than ten o'clock to-morrow morning."
"And I shall see him then?"
"Certainly you will, my dear Miss Baynard. He will be here immediately after breakfast."
By this time he had led her back to her chair, and had seated himself in another on the opposite side of the hearth.