"
The embrace that followed was a very fervent one. It had been sweet to meet
again after so many years, and it was hard to leave him so soon--to leave
him with the conviction that his life was a wreck. But Clarissa had no
time to linger. The thought of the baby in the Luxembourg Gardens had been
distracting her for ever so long. These stolen meetings must needs be
short.
She looked at her watch when she got back to the street, and found, to her
horror, that she had been very nearly an hour away from the nurse and her
charge. The carriage was waiting at the gate, and she had to encounter the
full fire of her servants' gaze as she crossed the road and went into the
gardens. Yes, there was the baby's blue-velvet pelisse resplendent at the
end of an avenue, Clarissa walked quickly to meet him.
"My darling!" she cried. "Has he been waiting for his mamma? I hope he has
not been tired of the gardens, nurse?"
"Yes, ma'am, he have been tired," replied Mrs. Brobson, with an outraged
air. "There ain't much in these gardens to keep a baby of his age amused
for an hour at a stretch; and in a east wind too! It's right down cutting
at that corner."
"Why didn't you take him home in the carriage, nurse? It would have been
better than running any risk of his catching cold."
"What, and leave you without a conveyance, ma'am? I couldn't have done
that!"
"I was detained longer than I expected to stay.
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