What can it mean?" asked one of them.
"They are going to the Dower House," answered a groom.
"Ah, then his lordship and her ladyship will not remain at the Abbey!
How strange! But there--rich people have nothing to do but indulge in
whims and caprices!" said the under house-maid, who was immediately
frowned down by her superiors in office.
Not a word was spoken by husband and wife as Lady Arleigh took her seat
in the carriage. Whatever she felt was buried in her own breast. Her
face shone marble-white underneath her vail, and her eyes were bent
downward. Never a word did she speak as the carriage drove slowly
through the park, where the dews were falling and the stars were bright.
Once her husband turned to her and tried to take her hand in his, but
she drew back.
"It will be better not to talk, Norman," she said. "I can bear it best
in silence."
So they drove on in unbroken quietude. The dew lay glistening on the
grass and trees; all nature was hushed, tranquil, sweet, and still. It
was surely the strangest drive that husband and wife had ever taken
together. More than once, noting the silent, graceful figure, Lord
Arleigh was tempted to ask Madaline to fly with him to some foreign
land, where they could live and die unknown--more than once he was
tempted to kiss the beautiful lips and say to her, "Madaline, you shall
not leave me;" but the dishonor attaching to his name caused him to
remain silent.
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