VOLUME THREE, CHAPTER TWO.

A PEEP BEHIND THE CLOUDS.

The meeting was painful, for Millicent Hallam and Sir Gordon had never stood face to face since that day when he had himself opened the door for her on the occasion of her appeal to him on her husband's behalf.

"Bless my soul!" exclaimed Sir Gordon. "I did not know this."

"It is a surprise, too, for me," said Mrs Hallam, as she coloured slightly, and then turned pale; but in a moment or two she was calm and composed--a handsome, grave-looking lady, with unlined face, but with silvery streaks running through her abundant hair.

"You--you should have told me, Bayle," said Sir Gordon testily.

"And spoilt my surprise," said Bayle.

"I am very, very glad to see you, Sir Gordon," said Mrs Hallam in a grave, sweet way, once more thoroughly mistress of her emotions.

"Julie, my dear, you hardly recollect our visitor?"

"Yes, oh yes!" said a tall, graceful girl, coming forward to place her hand in Sir Gordon's. "I seem to see you back as if through a mist; but--oh, yes, I remember!" She hesitated, and blushed, and laughed.

"You one day--you brought me a great doll."

Sir Gordon had taken both her hands, letting fall hat and stick. He tried to speak, but the words would not come. His lip quivered, his face twitched, and Julia felt his hands tremble, as she looked at him with naive wonder, unable to comprehend his emotion.

He raised her hand as if to press it to his lips, but let it fall, and, drawing her towards him, kissed her tenderly on the brow, ending by retaining her hand in both of his.

"An old man's kiss, my child," he said, gazing at her wistfully. "You remind me so of one I loved--twenty years ago, my dear, and before you were born." He looked round from one to the other, as if apologising for his emotion. "My dear Bayle," he said at last, recovering himself, and speaking with chivalrous courtesy, "I am in your debt for introducing me to our young friend. Mrs Hallam, you will let me come and see you?"

Millicent hesitated, and there was a curious, haughty, defiant look in her eyes as she gazed at her visitor, as if at bay.

"I am sure Mrs Hallam will be glad to see a very dear old friend of mine," said Bayle quietly; and as he spoke Mrs Hallam glanced at him.

Her eyes softened, and she held out her hand to her visitor.

"Always glad to see you," she said.

Sir Gordon smiled and looked pleased, as he glanced round the pretty, simply-furnished room, with tokens of the busy hands that adorned it on every side. Here was Julia's drawing, there her embroidery; they were her flowers in the window; the bird that twittered so sweetly from its cage hung on the shutter, and the piano, were hers too. There was only one jarring note in the whole interior, and that was the portrait in oils of the handsome man, in the most prominent place in the room--a picture that at one corner was a little blistered, as if by fire, and whose eyes seemed to be watching the visitor wherever he turned.

There were many painful memories revived during that visit, but on the whole it was pleasant, and with the agony of the past softened by time, Millicent Hallam found herself speaking half reproachfully to Sir Gordon for not visiting her during all these years.

"Don't blame me," he said in reply; "I have always felt that there was a wish implied on your part that our acquaintance should cease, as being too painful for both."

"Perhaps it was," she said, with a sigh; "and I am to blame."

"Let us share it, if there be any blame," said Sir Gordon, smiling, "and amend our ways. You must remember, though, that I have always kept up my friendship with the doctor whenever I have been at home, and I have always heard of your well-beings or--"

"Oh, yes!" said Mrs Hallam hastily, as if to check any allusion to a.s.sistance. "When I recovered from my serious illness I was anxious to leave Castor. I thought perhaps that my child's education--in London-- and Mr Bayle was very kind in helping me."

"He is a good friend," said Sir Gordon gravely.

"Friend!" cried Mrs Hallam, with her face full of animation, "he has been to me a brother. When I was in utter distress at that terrible time, he extricated my poor husband's money affairs from the miserable tangle in which they were left, and by a wise management of the little remainder so invested it that there was a sufficiency for Julia and me to live on in this simple manner."

"He did all this for you," said Sir Gordon dryly.

"Yes, and would have placed his purse at my disposal, but that he saw how painful such an offer would have been."

"Of course," said Sir Gordon, "most painful."

"I often fear that I did wrong in allowing him to leave Castor; but he has done so much good here that I tell myself all was for the best."

And so the conversation rippled on, Julia sometimes being drawn in, and now and then Bayle throwing in a word; but on the whole simply looking on, an interested spectator, who was appealed to now and then as if he had been the brother of one, the uncle of the other.

At last Sir Gordon rose to go, taking quite a lingering farewell of Julia, at whom he gazed again in the same wistful manner.

"Good-bye," he said, smiling tenderly at her, while holding her little hand in his. "I shall come again--soon--yes, soon; but not to bring you a doll."

There was a jingle of a tiny bell as they closed the door, and the hard-faced woman had to squeeze by the visitors to get to the door, the pa.s.sage was so small.

Sir Gordon stared hard, and then placed his large square gla.s.s to his eye.

"To be sure--yes. It's you," he said. "The old maid, Thisbe--"

"Some people can't help being old maids," said that lady tartly, "and some wants to be, sir."

"I beg your pardon," said Sir Gordon with grave politeness. "You mistake me. I meant the maid who used to be with Doctor and Mrs Luttrell in the old times. To be sure, yes, and with Mrs Hallam afterwards."

"Yes, Sir Gordon."

"So you've kept to your mistress all through--I mean you have stayed."

"Yes, sir, of course I have."

"And been one of the truest and best of friends," said Bayle, smiling.

Thisbe gave herself a jerk and glanced over her shoulder, as though to see if the way was clear for her escape--should she have to run and avoid this praise.

"Ah, yes," said Sir Gordon, looking at her still very thoughtfully. "To be sure," he continued, in quite dreamy tones, "I had almost forgotten.

Tom Porter wants to marry you."

"Then Tom Porter must--"

"Tchut! tchut! tchut! woman; don't talk like that. Make your hay while the sun shines. Good fellow, Tom. Obstinate, but solid, and careful.

Come, Bayle."

"Ah," he sighed, as they walked slowly down the street.

"Gather your rosebuds while you may, Old Time is still a-flying.

"You and I have never been rosebud gatherers, Christie Bayle. It will give us the better opportunity for watching those who are. Bayle, old friend, we must look out: there must be no handsome, plausible scoundrel to come and cull that fragrant little bloom--we must not have another sweet young life wrecked--like hers." He made a backward motion with his head towards the house they had left.

"Heaven forbid!" cried Bayle anxiously; and his countenance was full of wonder and dismay.

"You must look out, sir, look out," said Sir Gordon, thumping his cane.