The step came near her, and in the next moment a dark figure had
swung itself lightly upward from the path below, and George Fairfax was
seated on the angle of the massive balustrade.
"Juliet!" he said, in the same low voice, "what put it into your head to
play Juliet to-night? As if you were not dangerous enough without that."
"Mr. Fairfax, how could you startle me so? Lady Laura has been expecting
you all the evening."
"I suppose so. But you don't imagine I've been hiding in the garden all the
evening, like the man in Tennyson's _Maud_? I strained heaven and earth to
be here in time; but there was a break-down between Edinburgh and Carlisle.
Nothing very serious: an engine-driver knocked about a little, and a few
passengers shaken and bruised more or less, but I escaped unscathed, and
had to cool my impatience for half a dozen hours at a dingy little station
where there was no refreshment for body or mind but a brown jug of
tepid water and a big Bible. There I stayed till I was picked up by the
night-mail, and here I am. I think I shall stand absolved by my lady when
she reads the account of my perils in to-morrow's papers. People are just
going away, I suppose. It would be useless for me to dress and put in an
appearance now."
"I think Lady Laura would be glad to see you. She has been very anxious, I
know."
"Her sisterly cares shall cease before she goes to sleep to-night.
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