At the children's ball every week at the Casino the little "Anglaise"
was the acknowledged beauty. Just before they left the sands Caroline
turned and looked at the sea; it was growing cold and grey now, the
pale moon gave it a touch of sadness.
Somewhere over where the sea and the night sky met lay the land where
he was. If only her spirit could wing itself through these thousands of
miles and look upon him!
He seemed lost. It was not only distance that divided him.
Since that June night in the old garden there had been silence between
them--a silence that was fraught with the most hurtful significance to
Caroline.
She turned away and cuddled baby closer.
"News from Camilla," said Mrs. Brenton, as the little cavalcade turned
into the hotel gardens. "She is in Dieppe. We shall see her to-morrow.
She writes in a great hurry, but seems in the best of spirits. It is
useless," added Mrs. Brenton, with a faint smile, "to pretend that I
can keep up a defensive attitude with Camilla. She writes for all the
world as if she had never given me an hour's uneasiness in all her
life!"
Caroline dressed for dinner an hour later with a nervous feeling, that
was almost apprehension, weighting her.
"Why has she come to Dieppe?" she asked herself. "Can she know that he
is there? I wish I could be more sure of him. It is just because he
never speaks of her now that he makes me so anxious."
As luck would have it, that night when they went for their usual stroll
after dinner Agnes Brenton introduced Broxbourne's name.
It was her husband who had urged her to let the matter stand all this
time. She would not have spoken now only that she really was perplexed
by Caroline's manner, and could not rid herself of the suggestion that
though the girl was so bright, and her spirit seemed so unflagging, she
was in reality not at all happy. From this it was a very short step to
imagine that the man who was undoubtedly hovering about Caroline was
the cause of this unhappiness.
They stood a long time in silence watching the moonlit sea; then Mrs.
Brenton said, with a sigh--
"I shall be sorry to go away from here;" and Caroline said--
"So shall I." A moment later she said, "I wish I knew what my future is
going to be."
Mrs. Brenton looked at her.
"What do you mean, dear child?"
"I mean," said Caroline, "that everything before me is uncertain.
Undoubtedly the children's mother will make an attempt to have them
with her; but this cannot possibly be a lasting arrangement, because I
know something about Cuthbert Baynhurst, and I can hardly picture him
living in the same house, however large, with children. And," said
Caroline, with a little catch in her voice, "assuredly in that house
there would be no place for me."
Mrs. Brenton was silent a minute, and then she said--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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