'
'That is most humiliating,' said Mary, pouting a little in the midst of
her bliss.
'No, dearest, it is only natural,' answered Hammond. 'I believe if all
the happy lovers in this world could be questioned, at least half of
them would confess to having thought very little about each other at
first meeting. They meet, and touch hands, and part again, and never
guess the mystery of the future, which wraps them round like a cloud,
never say of each other, There is my fate; and then they meet again, and
again, as hazard wills, and never know that they are drifting to their
doom.'
Mary rang bells and gave orders, just as she had done in that summer
gloaming a year ago. The young men had arrived just at the same hour, on
the stroke of nine, when the eight o'clock dinner was over and done
with; for a _tete-a-tete_ meal with Fraeulein Mueller was not a feast to
be prolonged on account of its felicity. Perhaps they had so contrived
as to arrive exactly at this hour.
Lady Maulevrier received them both with extreme cordiality. But the
young men saw a change for the worse in the invalid since the spring.
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