"It was not necessary to tell me," she answered. "Am I not here?"

I bent low over her hand, which rested still in mine.

"Mine is not a purposeless exile--nor altogether an unhappy one--now," I
said. "I have work to do, Lady Angela, and I am going to it with a good
heart. When we meet again I hope that it may be differently. Your
coming--the memory of it will stand often between me and loneliness. It
will sweeten the very bitterest of my days."

"You are really going--to China?" she murmured.

I glanced towards Lord Chelsford. His back was turned to us. If he
understood the meaning of my pause he made no sign.

"I may not tell you where I am going or why," I answered. "But I will
tell you this, Lady Angela. I shall come back, and as you have come to
see me to-night, so shall I come to you before long. If you will trust
me I will prove myself worthy of it."

She did not answer me with any word at all, but with a sudden little
forward movement of both her hands, and I saw that her eyes were
swimming in tears. Yet they shone into mine like stars, and I saw
heaven there.

"I am sorry," Lord Chelsford said, gravely interposing, "but Lady
Chelsford will be waiting for you, Angela. And I think that I must ask
you to remember that I cannot sanction, or appear by my silence to
sanction, anything of this sort."

So he led her away, but what did I care? My heart was beating with the
rapture of her backward glance. I cared neither for Ray nor the Duke
nor any living person. For with me it was the one supreme moment of a
man's lifetime, come too at the very moment of my despair. I was no
longer at the bottom of the pit. The wonderful gates stood open.

CHAPTER XXXVIII

A TERRIBLE DISCOVERY

I Called softly to Grooton from my room upstairs.

"Grooton!"

"Yes, sir."

"You are alone?"

"Yes, sir."

"Is Mr. Hill still up at the Court?"

"He will be there until midnight, sir."

A gust of wind came suddenly roaring through the wood, drowning even the
muffled thunder of the sea below. The rain beat upon the window panes.
The little house, strongly built though it was, seemed to quiver from
its very foundations. I caught up my overcoat, and boldly descended the
narrow staircase. Grooton stood at the bottom, holding a lamp in his
hand.

"You are quite safe to-night, sir," he said. "There'll be no one about
in such a storm."

I stood still for a moment. The raging and tearing of the sea below had
momentarily