"Rimânez!" I cried, seizing him by the hand.
"Nay, Geoffrey, my homage is due here first,"--he replied, shaking off
my grasp, and advancing to Sibyl, who stood perfectly still where she
had risen up in her strange passion--"Lady Sibyl, am I welcome?"
"Can you ask it!" she said, with an enchanting smile, and in a voice
from which all harshness and excitement had fled; "More than welcome!"
Here she gave him both her hands which he respectfully kissed. "You
cannot imagine how much I have longed to see you again!"
"I must apologise for my sudden appearance, Geoffrey,"--he then
observed, turning to me--"But as I walked here from the station and came
up your fine avenue of trees, I was so struck with the loveliness of
this place and the exquisite peace of its surroundings, that, knowing my
way through the grounds, I thought I would just look about and see if
you were anywhere within sight before I presented myself at the
conventional door of entrance. And I was not disappointed,--I found you,
as I expected, enjoying each other's society!--the happiest and most
fortunate couple existent,--people whom, out of all the world I should
be disposed to envy, if I envied worldly happiness at all, which I do
not!"
I glanced at him quickly;--he met my gaze with a perfectly unembarrassed
air, and I concluded that he had not overheard Sibyl's sudden
melodramatic outburst.
"Have you dined?" I asked, with my hand on the bell.
"Thanks, yes. The town of Leamington provided me with quite a sumptuous
repast of bread and cheese and ale. I am tired of luxuries you
know,--that is why I find plain fare delicious. You are looking
wonderfully well, Geoffrey!--shall I offend you if I say you are
growing--yes--positively stout?--with the stoutness befitting a true
county gentleman, who means to be as gouty in the future as his
respectable ancestors?"
I smiled, but not altogether with pleasure; it is never agreeable to be
called 'stout' in the presence of a beautiful woman to whom one has only
been wedded a matter of three months.
"_You_ have not put on any extra flesh;--" I said, by way of feeble
retort.
"No"--he admitted, as he disposed his slim elegant figure in an
arm-chair near my own--"The necessary quantity of flesh is a bore to me
always,--extra flesh would be a positive infliction. I should like, as
the irreverent though reverend Sidney Smith said, on a hot day, 'to sit
in my bones,' or rather, to become a spirit of fine essence like
Shakespeare's Ariel, if such things were possible and permissible. How
admirably married life agrees with _you_, Lady Sibyl!"
His fine eyes rested upon her with apparent admiration,--she flushed
under his gaze I saw, and seemed confused.
"When did you arrive in England?" she inquired.
"Yesterday,"--he answered,--"I ran over Channel from Honfleur in my
yacht,--you did not know I had a yacht, did you Tempest?--oh, you must
come for a trip in her some day. She is a quick vessel, and the weather
was fair."
"Is Amiel with you?" I asked.
"No. I left him on board the yacht. I can, as the common people say,
'valet myself' for a day or two."
"A day or two?" echoed Sibyl--"But you surely will not leave us so soon?
You promised to make a long visit here."
"Did I?" and he regarded her steadily, with the same languorous
admiration in his eyes--"But, my dear Lady Sibyl, time alters our ideas,
and I am not sure whether you and your excellent husband are of the same
opinion as you were when you started on your wedding-tour. You may not
want me now!"
He said this with a significance to which I paid no heed whatever.
"Not want you!" I exclaimed--"I shall always want you Lucio,--you are
the best friend I ever had, and the only one I care to keep. Believe
me!--there's my hand upon it!"
He looked at me curiously for a minute,--then turned his head towards my
wife.
"And what does Lady Sibyl say?" he asked in a gentle, almost caressing
tone.
"Lady Sibyl says," she answered with a smile, and the colour coming and
going in her cheeks--"that she will be proud and glad if you will
consider Willowsmere your home as long as you have leisure to make it
so,--and that she hopes,--though you are reputed to be a hater of
women,--" here she raised her beautiful eyes and fixed them full upon
him--"you will relent a little in favour of your present châtelaine!"
With these words, and a playful salutation, she passed out of the room
into the garden, and stood on the lawn at a little distance from us, her
white robes shimmering in the mellow autumnal twilight,--and Lucio,
springing up from his seat, looked after her, clapping his hand down
heavily on my shoulder.
"By Heaven!" he said softly, "A perfect woman! I should be a churl to
withstand her,--or you, my good Geoffrey,"--and he regarded me
earnestly--"I have led a very devil of a life since I saw you
last,--it's time I reformed,--upon my soul it is! The peaceful
contemplation of virtuous marriage will do me good!--send for my luggage
to the station, Geoffrey, and make the best of me,--_I've come to
stay!_"