"Geraldine
herself could not have given me my quietus more coldly."
He was evidently wounded to the quick, being a creature spoiled by easy
conquests, and would have gone on perhaps in the same angry strain, but
there was a light step on the floor within, and Lady Laura Armstrong came
quickly towards the balcony.
"My dearest Clary, Captain Westleigh tells me that you are quite knocked
up--" she began; and then recognizing the belated traveller, cried out,
"George Fairfax! Is it possible?"
"George Fairfax, my dear Lady Laura, and not quite so base a delinquent as
he seems. I must plead guilty to pushing matters to the last limit; but
I made my plans to be here at seven o'clock this evening, and should
inevitably have arrived at that hour, but for a smash between Edinburgh and
Carlisle."
"An accident! Were you hurt?"
"Not so much as shaken; but the break-down lost me half a dozen hours.
We were stuck for no end of time at a dingy little station whose name I
forget, and when I did reach Carlisle, it was too late for any train to
bring me on, except the night-mail, which does not stop at Holborough. I
had to post from York, and arrived about ten minutes ago--too late for
anything except to prove to you that I did make heroic efforts to keep my
word."
"And how, in goodness' name, did you get here, to this room, without my
seeing you?"
"From the garden. Finding myself too late to make an appearance in the
ball-room, I prowled round the premises, listening to the sounds of revelry
within; and then seeing Miss Lovel alone here--playing Juliet without a
Romeo--I made so bold as to accost her and charge her with a message for
you.
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