“Well,” said Amelius; “and why not, if I like it?”
“Because I want you to remain a roving bachelor; here today and gone tomorrow—travelling all over the world, and seeing everything and everybody.”
“What good will that do to you, Mrs. Farnaby?”
She rose from her own side of the fireplace, crossed to the side on which Amelius was sitting, and, standing before him, placed her hands heavily on his shoulders. Her eyes grew radiant with a sudden interest and animation as they looked down on him, riveted on his face.
“I am still waiting, my friend, for the living consolation that may yet come to me,” she said. “And, hear this, Amelius! After all the years that have passed, you may be the man who brings it to me.”
In the momentary silence that followed, they heard a double knock at the house-door.
“Regina!” said Mrs. Farnaby.
As the name passed her lips, she sprang to the door of the room, and turned the key in the lock.