She paused; a chariot ascended
to the inn, and would have passed had not its occupant caught sight
of her standing expectantly. The horses were checked on the
instant.
'You here--and alone, my dear Mrs. Willowes?' said Lord
Uplandtowers, whose carriage it was.
She explained what had brought her into this lonely situation; and,
as he was going in the direction of her own home, she accepted his
offer of a seat beside him. Their conversation was embarrassed and
fragmentary at first; but when they had driven a mile or two she was
surprised to find herself talking earnestly and warmly to him: her
impulsiveness was in truth but the natural consequence of her late
existence--a somewhat desolate one by reason of the strange marriage
she had made; and there is no more indiscreet mood than that of a
woman surprised into talk who has long been imposing upon herself a
policy of reserve. Therefore her ingenuous heart rose with a bound
into her throat when, in response to his leading questions, or
rather hints, she allowed her troubles to leak out of her. Lord
Uplandtowers took her quite to her own door, although he had driven
three miles out of his way to do so; and in handing her down she
heard from him a whisper of stern reproach: 'It need not have been
thus if you had listened to me!'
She made no reply, and went indoors. There, as the evening wore
away, she regretted more and more that she had been so friendly with
Lord Uplandtowers.
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