elf after the first
week of their arrival? Had he not been occupied with some engrossing
business all the time since then? What business could have at once so
occupied him and so changed him, if it were not something of this
kind? There was one thing which could at once account for his
coolness to her and his inaccessibility to her advances, for his
journey to Florence, for his occupation all the time, and now for
this strange mood of happiness which had come so suddenly yet so
gently over him. And that one thing, which alone, to her mind, could
at once account for all these things, was Love.

The time passed, and Lord Chetwynde's new mood seemed lasting. Never
had he been so considerate, so gentle, and so kind to Hilda. At any
other time, or under any other circumstances, this change would have
stimulated her mind to the wildest hopes; but now it prompted fears
which filled her with despair. So, as the days passed, the struggle
raged within her breast.

Meanwhile Lord Chetwynde was a constant visitor at the villa of Obed
Chute, and a welcome guest to all. As the days passed the constant
association which he had with Zillah made each better known to the
other than ever before. The tenderness that existed between them was
repressed in the presence of the others; but on the frequent
occasions when they were left alone together it found expression by
acts if not by words, by looks if not by acts. Lord Chetwynde could
not forget that first look of all-absorbing and overwhelming joy with
which Zillah had greeted him on his sudden appearance. A master, to a
certain extent, over himself, he coerced himself so far as not to
alarm Zillah by any tender words or by any acts which told too much;
yet in his face and in his eyes she could read, if she chose, all his
devotion. As for Zillah, the change which she had felt from the dull
monotony of her past to the vivid joy of the present was so great and
so powerful that its effects were too manifest to be concealed. She
could not conceal the glow of health that sprang to her cheek, the
light that kindled in her eye, the resonant tone that was added to
her voice, and the spring that came to her step. Nor could she, in
her girlish innocence, conceal altogether how completely she now
rested all her hopes and all her happiness upon Lord Chetwynde; the
flush of joy that arose at his arrival, the sadness that overspread
her at his departure. But Obed Chute and his sister were not
observa