In spite of his outward _nonchalance_ and _sang froid_, Leslie Noble at
heart was restless and impatient and consumed by a burning anxiety.
Six weeks had elapsed since he had incarcerated his beautiful prisoner
in the ruined old house in the wood, and in all that time he had been
afraid to venture back to see her, owing to a keen suspicion he had
imbibed regarding the close espionage that was kept upon his movements
by the employes of Colonel Lockhart.
The slight flesh wound Lady Vera had inflicted on his arm had entirely
healed, and with it had died out his futile anger against her, giving
place again to the weak love that had urged him to that desperate
recourse of abducting her.
"I was rash and hasty in my last interview with her," he tells himself,
"I should have remembered that love cannot be forced. I must woo her
gently, with respectful looks and reverential words. I must sue for her
favor humbly, as if she were a queen and I her humble slave. Many a
woman has been won by flattery."
The longing came over him to woo her with rich gifts and costly jewels
poured lavishly at her feet as if naught were too splendid and costly
for his beautiful idol.
Alas! his splendid fortune had dwindled to a wretched competency under
the various extravagances of Ivy and her mother.
"Weak fool that I was to allow Ivy to retain those magnificent jewels,"
he thinks, bitterly. "She ruthlessly sacrificed my fortune to obtain
them, and by every right on earth they belong to Lady Vera, who is my
real wife, not to the woman who usurped her place."
Fostering these thoughts and feelings ceaselessly in his breast, Leslie
Noble at last conceived a dastardly design to possess himself of the
jewels which he had at first decided should remain the property of his
deserted and repudiated second wife.
Accordingly one morning, when he had ascertained that his mother-in-law
was away from home, and not likely to return for several hours, he
sent up his card to Ivy, who, after some little delay in arranging her
toilet, received him in the shabby-genteel little parlor.
In the trembling hope that she might yet win back the recreant, Ivy
had made herself as fair as she could without the assistance of her
maid, with whose services her mother's parsimony had compelled her to
dispense.
"Overdressed and daubed with paint, as usual," was Mr. Noble's
disgusted, inward comment, but he allowed none of this feeling to
appear upon his face. Instead, he threw a glance of deep tenderness and
contrition into his soft, dark eyes, and held out his arms, exclaiming
sadly:
"My injured wife! Can you ever forgive me the sorrow I have caused you?"
"Oh, Leslie, you have repented!" the lady sobs, throwing herself into
the open arms.
And for a while we will draw the curtain of absence over this touching
picture of sacred conjugal love and reunion, while we seek others of
our friends.
* * * * *
On the afternoon of that same day Colonel Lockhart received a call from
the chief detective.
"I have discovered," he says briefly, "that Mr. Noble has hired a
conveyance to take him down into the country about twenty-five miles
to-night."
"Well?" Colonel Lockhart inquires, his blue eyes blazing with
excitement.
"I have hired a fast trap for myself, and intend to give secret chase
to the gentleman," Mr. Sharp replies.
"That is right. I will accompany you," decides his employer, eagerly,
and with a springing hope in his breast.