As the Secretary sat in the governess' cart finishing his second cigar, he reflected that if he had any strength of character he would never have lent his aid in countenancing a secret marriage between one of his best friends, and a man, who, he believed, could be proved guilty of something very nearly approaching treason to the Sovereign whose uniform he wore; nor, for that matter, would he be waiting for a girl who had insulted him by her suspicions of the evening before, and who had capped the climax by taking the refusal of him at her own valuation. However, his reflections were cut short by the appearance of Miss Fitzgerald herself, who had not hurried so much as to be flushed or out of breath, and who had arrived with the fixed intention of keeping the Secretary away from the Hall during the entire afternoon. "I'm awfully sorry to have kept you waiting so long," she said, mounting to the seat which faced him, he driving under her direction. "But you shall have your reward--for I've two bits of good news for you." "That's encouraging," he replied, praying inwardly that one of them was the announcement of Lady Isabelle's marriage. "In the first place, your friend Mr. Kent-Lauriston has arrived." The Secretary's face did not express any excess of joy. "Won't you be glad to see him?" she asked. "Of course," he replied. "He's an old friend of yours?" "My oldest in England." "How nice that he's here!" she said, a slight frown clouding her brows. "His coming will mean so much to you." "Yes," said the Secretary meditatively, "I don't know how much," and there was silence between them for a while. "And your second piece of news?" he asked suddenly, recollecting himself. "Is, that your pet detestation is going away." "You refer to Colonel Darcy?" She nodded. "Away from here?" "Away from England." "Really." "You know so much about him, I thought you might have heard of it." "Where is he going?" "Abroad somewhere." "Does he take his wife with him?" She laughed light-heartedly, as though relieved from some oppression. "No, I fancy not--in fact I think it is rather to escape her." "Oh!" he said, and relapsed into silence. Then suddenly reverting to his original train of thought, which Darcy's name suggested, he spoke abruptly:-- "Why did you ask me to drive with you this afternoon?" "Because I wanted to talk to you--no, I didn't-- I wanted you to talk to me." "About last night?" "Yes." "But it's impossible--if you can believe----!" he cried hotly. "What Bob said, about you and his wife?" she interjected. "I don't, but it made me very angry just the same. You see, up to last night, you had been an ideal to me. Then suddenly you proposed to change all our relations; and just at that moment Bob came in and made those charges, which, though untrue, showed me how very human you would have to be to me if I accepted you, and I was bitter and lost my head."