Chapter 23

Her Ladyship Returns to Town

Upon the awful occasion of his kinsman's sudden death in the midst of
the glittering throng of his guests, my lord Duke had spoken for the
first time to her ladyship of Dunstanwolde's sister, the gentle
Mistress Anne. His Grace had chanced to encounter this lady under such
circumstances as naturally led them to address each other, and he being
glad to have speech with her on whom his thoughts had dwelt so kindly,
had remained in attendance upon her, escorting her through the crowd of
celebrities and leading her to the supper-room for refreshment. Had she
been wholly a stranger to him, she was one who would have appealed to
his heart and touched it, she was so slight and modest a creature, her
eyes so soft and loving and her low voice so timid. Such women always
moved him and awakened in him that tenderness the weak should always
waken in the strong. But Mistress Anne did more; seeming to him, when
she spoke of her sister or looked at her, surely the fondest creature
Nature had ever made.

"I understand now," his Grace had said to her as they talked, "why her
ladyship says that 'twas you who first taught her what love meant."

A soft colour flooded Mistress Anne's whole face as she lifted it to
look at him who stood so tall above her smallness.

"Did she so?" she exclaimed. "Did she so?" And her soft dull eyes
seemed about to fill with tears.

"Truly she did, madam," he answered with warm feeling, "and added, too,
that until you taught her she had never before beheld it."

"I--oh, I am grateful!" said Mistress Anne. "I never dreamed that
I--But in these days, she hath a way of always saying that which makes
one happy."

"She loves and leans on you," my lord Duke said, and there was sudden
emotion in his voice.

"Leans!" cried Mistress Anne with a kind of loving fright; "Anne--on
Anne!"

"Yes, yes," he answered. "I have seen it--felt it! Your pardon for my
boldness. You will never forget!"

And at that very moment his attention had been caught by the look on
his kinsman's face--they chancing to be near his lordship; and he had
seen him sway and fall in the midst of a terrified group, which uttered
a low simultaneous cry.

After his attendance at the funeral ceremonies, which took place in
Warwickshire, his Grace of Osmonde did not return at once to town, but
went to Camylott that in the midst of the quiet loveliness he might be
alone.

"I must have time to think," he said; "to still my brain which
whirls--to teach it to understand."

Oh! the heavenly stillness and