was
further convicted of preferring long, solitary rides to joining the
numerous equestrian parties got up in the summer; but as public opinion
had unanimously agreed that she must be engaged to Fane, the unsocial
trait was excused on that hypothesis.

About this period, he having just discovered her whereabouts, Cecil
received a long letter from Harry Dutton, relating what he knew would
interest her--the strange events and transformations at "The Towers." A
similar one came to Mrs. Rolleston from Bluebell, who, now that she was
at liberty to speak, wrote something like a volume of narrative and
explanation to her friend. The latter, agitated and excited, flew to
Cecil with the wonderful news, unaware that she had heard it already from
Dutton, or, indeed, of her acquaintance with him: for, considering that
all he had told her was in the strictest confidence. Cecil, as the
simplest way of keeping it secret, had never mentioned anything at all
about him. She must now, however, confess, for her step-mother was in an
effusive mood, and bent upon instantly inviting the Duttons to pay them a
visit.

Mrs. Rolleston received the information with some coldness and little
curiosity, being naturally hurt at her step-daughter's concealment of a
fact of so much interest to her; and though she probably told the
General, he never afterwards alluded to the episode. Indeed, Cecil's
labours at Scutari were rather a tabooed subject, as Harry speedily
discovered when one day he attempted to blunder out his gratitude to her
father.

The Duttons were invited for a week; also Colonel Fane and Captain
Vavasour. Cecil became restless and excited as the day approached. The
sight of Bluebell would cruelly re-open old wounds, and she had never met
Vavasour (who had brought back the slain body of her lover) since the
Crimea. And he would talk to her about it, she was sure, for Jack had
long ago fathomed their ill fated attachment. Altogether, it was a relief
that other guests were coming to dinner, for they were all too intimate
in one way and too far apart in another--a connecting thread seeming to
run through all their lives. Jack, an old love of Bluebell's, Dutton,
whom she had nursed through deadly peril, and Fane, only prevented being
a declared suitor by systematic absence of reciprocity on her side. Well
it was a mercy they all came in owl-light, scarcely dusk enough for
candles, but pleasantly veiling countenances not too much under com