g guests must ride in coach or chariot or on
horseback. When the equipage of the Earl and his Countess passed
through Camylott village, old Rowe would ring a welcoming peal. But my
lord Duke stood still at the window of the Long Gallery where he had
said his tender farewell to his beloved mother before she had left her
home. He was thinking of a grave thing and feeling that the violet eyes
rested upon him again in a soft passion of pity. The thing he thought
of was that which, when his eyes met my Lady Dunstanwolde's, made the
blood pulse through his veins; 'twas that he had known he should some
day see in some woman's eyes, and had told himself would be answer to
the question his being asked; 'twas that he had prayed God he might
see, ay, and had believed and sworn to himself he should see--in this
woman's when he came back to stand face to face with her as lover, if
she would. Well, he had come and seen it, and 'twas in the eyes and
soul of her who was to be his kinsman's wife. And never since he had
been man born had he beheld the faintest glimmering of its glow in any
woman's eyes, though they had been like pools of love or stars of
Heaven, never yet! Moreover, he knew well that he never should again
behold it in any hour to come. Before its fire his soul shook and his
body trembled; 'twas a thing which drew him with a power no human being
could explain the strength of or describe; had he been weak or evil,
and she evil, too, it would have dragged him to her side through crime
and hell; he could not have withstood it.

He saw again the sudden pallor of his mother's sweet face, the sudden
foreboding in her eyes.

"If you loved her 'twould drive you mad and make you forget what you
must be."

"Yes," he cried, putting his hand suddenly to his brow, feeling it
damp, "it has driven me mad, I think--mad. I am not the same man! The
torture is too great. I could--I could--nay! nay!" with half a shudder.
"Let me not forget, mother; let me not forget."

Through this visit he must be a gracious host; a score of other guests
would aid him by sharing his attentions; her ladyship, as new wedded
bride, would be the central figure of the company. Her lord's love for
him and unconsciousness of any suspicion of the truth would put him to
the test many a time, but he would keep his word to himself, the vow he
made to avoid nearness to her when 'twas to be done with any
graciousness, and her eyes he would not meet in more than pass