Part 28 (2/2)

”Oh, yes, thanks.”

”When you get to Invers.h.i.+n,” his lords.h.i.+p continued, thoughtfully, ”you can telegraph to the Station Hotel at Inverness what you want for dinner. No soup; I make it a rule never to take soup in a big hotel; a friendly manager once warned me in confidence. You'll be glad to have a bit of white fish after so much grilse and sea-trout.”

”Oh, I'll take my chance,” Lionel said; it was not dinner that was occupying his thoughts.

There was a sound of horses' hoofs and carriage wheels; the wagonette was being brought round to the front door.

”I consider it very shabby of Honnor not to have stayed to say good-bye,” Lady Adela said to her departing guest. ”She might have given up one morning's fis.h.i.+ng, I think, especially as you have been such an a.s.siduous attendant--carrying her things for her, and keeping her company on those long excursions--”

”Oh, don't be afraid,” said Miss Georgie, with a bit of a covert laugh.

”Honnor won't forsake her friend like that. I'll bet you she won't be far from the Horse's Drink when Mr. Moore has to cross the stream.”

”If I were you,” Lord Rockminster finally said, in a confidential undertone, as they all rose from the table, ”I would telegraph about dinner.”

How Lionel hated the sight of this open door, and the wagonette, and the portmanteau up beside the coachman!

”Good-bye, Mr. Moore,” said the pleasant-mannered young matron to him, as she took his hand for a moment. ”I'm afraid it has been awfully dull for you--”

”Lady Adela!” he said.

”But the next time you come we shall try to be less monotonously bucolic. Perhaps by then the phonograph will be able to bring us a whole musical evening from London, whenever we want it--a whole performance of an operetta--”

”Offenbach in a Highland valley!” he exclaimed.

”No,” she said, very quietly and graciously; ”but perhaps something by the composer of 'The Squire's Daughter'--and there might be in it an air as delightful as that of 'The Starry Night.' Oh, Mr. Moore, don't let them produce any other piece at the New Theatre until we all get back to London again! Well, good-bye--it's so kind of you to have taken pity on us in this wilderness--”

”If you knew how sorry I am to go, Lady Adela!” he said. ”And will you say good-bye for me to Miss Cunyngham?”

”You needn't bother to leave a message,” said Miss Georgie, with significant eyes. ”You'll find she won't be far away from the Horse's Drink.”

And as it chanced, Miss Georgie's forecast (whether inspired by a saucy impertinence or not) proved correct. Lionel, having bade farewell to all these friends, got into the wagonette; and away the carriage went--quietly, at first, over the soft turf and stones--to the river. Of course he looked out. Yes, there was Miss Honnor--fis.h.i.+ng the Whirl Pool--with old Robert sitting on the s.h.i.+ngle watching her. Would she notice?--or would he get down and walk along to her and claim the good-bye she had forgotten? The next moment he was rea.s.sured. She caught sight of the approaching wagonette; she carefully placed her rod on the s.h.i.+ngle, and then came walking along the river-bank, towards the ford, at which the horses had now arrived.

Even at a distance he could not but admire the grace and ease and dignity of her carriage--the harmonious movement of a perfectly formed figure; and as she drew nearer he kept asking himself (as if the question were necessary) whether he would be able to take away a keen mental photograph of those fine features--the clear and placid forehead, the strongly marked eyebrows, the calm, self-reliant eyes, the proud and yet not unsympathetic lines of the mouth. She came nearer; a smile lit up her face; and there was a kind of radiance there, he thought. He had leaped down from the wagonette: he went forward to meet her; her hand was outstretched.

”I am sorry you are going,” she said, frankly.

”And I am far more sorry to have to go,” said he, and he held her hand a little longer than there was any occasion for, until she gently withdrew it. ”There are so many things I should like to say to you, Miss Honnor; but somehow they always escape you just when they're wanted; and I've told you so often before that I am not likely to forget your kindness to me up here--”

”Surely it is the other way about!” she said, pleasantly. ”You have come and cheered up my lonely hours--and been so patient--never grumbled--never looked away up the hill as if you would have given your life to be after the grouse; and in the drawing-room of an evening you've always sung when I asked you--when I was inconsiderate enough to ask you--”

”My goodness! Miss Honnor,” he said, ”if I had known you looked on it in that light, I should have sung for you constantly, whether you asked or not.”

”Well, it's all over now,” said she, ”and I hope you are taking away with you a pleasant memory of Strathaivron.”

”I have spent the happiest days of my life here,” he said; and then he hesitated--was about to speak--hesitated again--and finally blurted out, ”Is there anything I can do for you in London, Miss Honnor?”

”No, thanks,” she said. ”By the way, you'll have an hour or two in Inverness. You might go in to Mr. Watson's and ask him to send me out a few more flies--if you have plenty of time, that is.”

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