She went into the dining-room, and the
servant was glad to see that she finished her soup, and, though she hardly
tasted it, she finished a wing of a chicken, and also the glass of wine
which the man pressed upon her. Half an hour after, when he brought out the
tea, he found her sitting on her habitual chair nursing her dog, and
staring into the fire so drearily that her look frightened him, and he
hesitated before he gave her the letter which had just come up from the
town; but it was marked 'Immediate.'
When he left the room she opened it. It was from Mrs. Bentley:--
'Dearest Emily,--I know that Hubert told you that he was not going to marry
me. He thought he was not, for I had refused to marry him; but a short time
after we met in the park quite accidentally, and--well, fate took the
matter out of our hands, and we are to be married to-morrow. Hubert insists
on going to Italy, and I believe we shall remain there two months. We have
made arrangements for your aunt to live with you until we come back; and
when we do come back, I hope all the little unpleasantnesses which have
marred our friendship for this last month or two will be forgotten. So far
as I am concerned, nothing shall be left undone to make you happy.
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