"Either my palate is out of order," he said, "or else Sir Thomas's wine merchant is a vendor of rubbish." Then he added, "I promised that I would give Sir Thomas another look in before I went back, but I'll go first and have a weed in the shrubbery. A quarter of an hour in the fresh air will bring me down to my ordinary business level."
"I shall want to see you again before you go," said Olive. "I have a tiny parcel for you to take to my aunt."
Her heart was fluttering so fast, that she was obliged to press one hand over it in an effort to still its wild beating.
"All right. I'll look in again for a minute before starting," said Mr. Kelvin, as he took up his hat.
He was just about to open the door, when Olive, whose eyes had been anxiously following him, saw him stagger slightly, and lift his hand to his head. She was by his side in a moment.
"What is it, Matthew? Are you not well?"
"It was nothing. Only a sudden giddiness. I shall be better when I get into the fresh air."
Then he opened the door and went out.
Olive went to the window, from which place the side-door could be seen by which her cousin would gain access to the grounds Even her lips seemed to have lost their colour this afternoon. She stood there, rubbing one thin white hand against the other, with a slow, restless motion, as though that were the only outlet she could find for the intense life burning within her.
"It begins to take effect already!" she whispered, as though she were breathing her secret in some one's ear. "He shall take me back with him to Pembridge this very day. When he gets over this foolish passion, as he must do when Eleanor Lloyd is another man's wife, then his heart will turn to me--the heart that once was mine, and that shall be mine again! With me for his wife, all his old, ambitious dreams would spring up again with renewed vigour. He should not live and die a mere country lawyer, as, with Eleanor Lloyd for his wife, he surely would do. Raby House is his already--so his mother told me. He is far richer than the world believes him to be. In a little while he will be in Parliament--and then! What wild, ambitious dreams are these! But they are dreams that shall one day become realities, if a woman's will can make them so. There he is in the Laurel Walk! He sits down and presses his hand to his forehead. It wrings my heart to see him suffer; but what can I do? How gladly would I suffer instead of him, if thereby I could charm him to my side and make him my own for ever! It is time to go and get ready for my journey."