He had intended to say all sorts of kind and
encouraging things, but he could only manage the two words, "Good-bye;"
and they were almost inaudible.
She sank back into the carriage as it drove away from the Hall, and
closed her eyes that she might not see the familiar trees in the
avenue, the cattle, everyone of which she knew by name, grazing in the
meadow, the pale and woe-begone faces of the servants who stood by the
steps to catch the last glimpse of their beloved; and for some time her
eyes remained closed; but they opened as she came to the clearing by
the lake, from which one could see the long stretching facade of Sir
Stephen Orme's white villa. She opened them then and looked at the
house, wondering whether Stafford was there, wondering why he had not
come to her, despite the promise she had exacted from him; wondering
whether he knew that her father was dead, and that she was left
penniless.
She was not capable of any more tears, and a dull apathy crushed down
upon her, so that she did not notice that at the station Mr. John Heron
improved the occasion, as he would have put it, by distributing tracts
to the station-master and porters.
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