Part 54 (2/2)
She started, as her new name was p.r.o.nounced, and laying a detaining hand upon him, as he would have left her, said, her voice breaking:--
”Forgive me, Mr. Lambert. Say you forgive me.”
”My poor child,” he said sadly, placing one hand on her bowed head. ”My poor child, you are too much in need of forgiveness from others for me to withhold mine. It is yours freely; but promise me that you'll show your appreciation of it by coming to me in all your troubles.”
She seized his other hand in both of hers, and kissing it, burst into tears.
”And now,” he said sternly, ”I will seek out that miserable girl.”
But Miss Fitzgerald, dreading the tempest, had sought the haven of her own room.
She was not a picture of contrite repentance as she stood by the open window, looking out into the night.
”Fools all!” she mused. ”So I am to blame--it is all my fault!”
An amused sneer played about her lips.
”Ah me! After all it is our faults that make life interesting to us--or us interesting to others,” and she tossed away her half-smoked cigarette with a shrug.
CHAPTER x.x.x
TWO LETTERS
Precisely as the clock struck ten, Kent-Lauriston entered the smoking-room to find it in sole possession of Stanley, who stood leaning against the mantelpiece, lost in thought--a cigar, long ago gone out, hanging listlessly between his fingers.
”I'm afraid I'm late,” said his genial adviser, glancing at the clock, ”but I was just finis.h.i.+ng a game of cribbage with Mr. Riddle.”
”I don't envy you his society,” growled the Secretary, whose temper was not improved by recent experiences.
”You misjudge him,” replied Kent-Lauriston. ”He's a very good fellow, in more senses of the word than one--he's just given Mr. Lambert a thumping big cheque, for the restoration of his little church.”
”And made you the recipient of the fact of his generosity?”
”Far from it; our gossiping little parson did that, in direct violation of a pledge of secrecy; for Riddle never wishes his good works to be known--he's not that kind.”
”I consider him a hypocrite,” replied Stanley shortly.
”Then you do him a great injustice, my dear boy; and allow me to say, you'll never make a good diplomat till you've arrived at a better knowledge of human nature; it's the keystone of the profession. But, to change the subject, how have you been spending the evening?”
”Oh, making a fool of myself, as usual.”
”So I suppose. What particular method did you adopt this time?”
”First, I chivied our amiable parson from pillar to post, in this very room, till I'd forced the admission of an important fact from him, and the practical admission of another.”
”And then,” continued Kent-Lauriston, ”you went and tried the effect of your statements on the young ladies.”
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