Lady Fitzharford had scarcely left the room, laughing, and not a little puzzled, before the servant admitted Ida. She was pale, and the look of sadness in her eyes was even more palpable than on the preceding night.
She blushed for an instant as she gave her hand to Howard.
"Lady Fitzharford has gone to get her music, Miss Heron," he said; "she bade me make her excuses; she will be here presently. It is so good of you to remember our appointment! When I came to think it over, I was quite ashamed, do you know, at the obtrusive way in which I pressed the subject of my friend, Lord Highcliffe"s condition, upon you. But mind, though, I do think you would feel interested in his letter. He has a knack, unintellectual as he is"--Ida rose readily to the fly again and flashed a momentary glance of indignation at him from her violet eyes--"a child-like way of describing scenes and incidents in a kind of graphic style which--What an idiot I am!" he broke off to exclaim, he had been feeling in his pocket; "I have actually left the letter at home! Please forgive me. But perhaps you will regard my lapse of memory as affording you a happy escape."
Ida"s lips trembled and her eyes became downcast. Disappointment was eloquently depicted on her face.
"No, I am sorry," she said. "I--I should have liked to have seen the letter."
"Would you really?" he purred, penitently, as she turned away to the window. "Then I will go and get it; my rooms are only a short distance."
"Oh, pray, don"t trouble," she said, so faintly that Howard found it difficult not to smile.
"Not at all," he said, politely, and left the room.
As he went down the stairs he glanced at his watch, and muttered:
"Now, if the young idiot isn"t up to time--"
At that moment there was a knock at the hall-door, the servant opened it, and Stafford entered with a gloomy countenance and a reluctant gait.
"I"ve come," he said, rather morosely; "though I don"t know why you should have insisted upon my doing so--or what good it will do me to hear about her," he added, in a low voice, as they followed the servant up the stairs.
As the man touched the handle of the door, Howard said:
"Go in, my dear fellow; I"ve left my pocket-handkerchief in my overcoat in the hall: back in a moment."
With a frown of annoyance, Stafford hesitated and looked after him; then, with a shrug of his shoulders, he obeyed and entered the room.
They uttered no cry of surprise, of joy. They stood for a moment looking at each other with their hearts in their eyes. It was the moment that bridged over all the weary months of waiting, of longing, of doubts and fears, of hope that seemed too faint for hope and but a mockery of despair.
He had no need to ask her if she loved him, her face was eloquent of the truth; and her eyes reflected the love that glowed in his. He had got hold of her hand before she knew it, had drawn her to him, and, utterly regardless of the fact that he was in a strange house, that they might be interrupted any moment, he kissed her pa.s.sionately with all the pa.s.sion that had been stored up for so long.
"Ida," he said, as he bent over her and pressed her to him, "I have come back, I cannot live without you--ah, but you know that, you know that. Is it too late? It is not too late?"
"No; it is not too late," she whispered. "I--I did not know whether you would come. But I have been waiting; I should have waited all my life.
But the time has been very long, Stafford!"
At the end of the quarter of an hour for which Howard had bargained, Lady Fitzharford opened the door of the inner room softly, so softly, that seeing Miss Heron in the arms of a stalwart young man, and apparently quite content to be there, her ladyship discreetly closed the door again, and going round by the inner room found Mr. Howard seated on the stairs. She looked at him with amazement, well-nigh bewilderment.
"Are you mad?" she exclaimed, in a whisper.
Howard smiled at her blandly.
"No," he said, with a backward jerk of his head, "but they are. I"m told it"s a delicious kind of madness worth all your sanity. Do not let us disturb them. Come and sit down beside me until the time is up," he glanced at his watch; "they have still three minutes."
With a suppressed laugh she sat down beside him.
"You ought to be ashamed of yourself," she said, "to play me such a trick. But, oh, how happy they look!"
"I am ashamed of myself, my dear, lady," he said; "but I should have been more ashamed of myself if I hadn"t. Do they look happy? We will go in and see presently. It will be my great reward. But I should like to give them another five minutes, dear lady, for I a.s.sure you, on my word of honour, that I was once young myself."
THE END.