The next morning Katie takes up her position at her father's
writing-table. She has a letter to answer--a very confidential one
from her friend and confidant, Liddy Delmere--and she feels bound to
return confidence for confidence. Ere the epistle is finished, she
starts up and thrusts it into her desk. Her eyes have been constantly
wandering from the paper to the cold slippery streets, where people are
jostling against each other as they make their way through the showers
of falling sleet and gusts of rough wind. Surely no one would venture
out except in a case of absolute necessity; yet the girl evidently
expects _some one_; and by the rapid closing of her desk, no doubt the
'somebody' is in sight.
A tall upright figure may be observed emerging from the crowds of
passers-by; an officer, by the gold buttons on his rough outside coat.
Guiding his umbrella skilfully, Sir Herbert walks quickly on, and soon
Katie hears his well-known knock at the door, and his well-known step
in the hall, as he takes his way to her father's library downstairs.
'He will come up here presently with some apology to me, or I'm much
mistaken,' muses Kate, as she takes a swift look at herself in the
glass; and ere long the door is thrown open, and Sir Herbert Dillworth
announced. He glances quickly round the room, and this is what he sees:
a pretty, well-harmonised interior, a blending of soft warm colours,
and a blazing fire in the grate, that reflects itself in the polished
steel surrounding it. And Kate Grey, the brightest point of the whole
scene, is sitting beside the writing-table, and looking up with a smile
to greet him. She wears a morning dress of ruby Cashmere, and a single
knot of the same colour in the thick rolls of her dark hair. There is
not a shadow of resentment in those lustrous eyes as she holds out
her hand, frankly and pleasantly, to her visitor. Feeling perfectly
self-possessed herself, she owns to a degree of satisfaction as she
notices how disturbed Sir Herbert looks. The fact is his daughter's
words are still ringing in his memory--'People say you mean to make her
your second wife'--and he is wondering what Katie herself would say on
such a subject. Will she ignore the dreary barrier of years that lies
between them? Will she forget that he has gone some distance farther
on in life's journey, while she is in the very prime and flush of
girlhood? These thoughts flash through his mind, and make him appear
nervous and absent as he begins to talk about last night's party. But
his mind is made up.
'We missed _you_, Miss Grey. Will you pardon us that you had no
invitation? My daughter is not much accustomed to sending them out.'
'Please, don't mention it, Sir Herbert. I am very glad to go to
Government House when I'm wanted there; but one cannot always be
invited, you know.'
'But I like you always to come. The omission shall not happen again. We
had a wretchedly stupid gathering. Spare me similar disappointments in
future, Miss Grey, by--by taking the right of arranging these matters
into your own hands.'
The girl looks up inquiringly. Nothing can be more unsuspecting and
guileless than the questioning eyes that meet Sir Herbert's.
'Will you _take_ the right, Katie? My life has grown strangely desolate
and lonely of late; will you cheer it with your presence? In short,
will you be my wife?'
The question is asked now, eagerly and impassion'dly, and Miss Grey's
eyes droop under the Admiral's gaze. This vision has been dazzling her
mind so long; she has dreamt of it, thought of it; and now the offer
of marriage has really come! Though the triumph is making her heart
throb, she can hardly tell whether she is glad or sorry. But she does
not draw back. For the treasure of Sir Herbert's loyal affection, for
his true earnest love, she will give in exchange her youth and beauty.
She thinks the bargain a fair one, and wonders can anything more be
required.
When Sir Herbert leaves his affianced wife, he goes down to her father,
to tell him of what he calls his 'good fortune.'
'Yes; and mamma and Helen shall hear all about it from me. Won't they
be surprised!' adds the young lady with a short low laugh, as the
Admiral goes out of the room. She hears him close the library door, and
then says to herself with another little spasmodic laugh: 'Every one
will be surprised, as I am myself, to think how quickly it has all come
about. Last evening I was excluded from Government House, and now I
have promised to rule and reign there. Which has conquered--Laura Best
or I?'