Who shall wonder that his mind luxuriated
in dreams of a sweet possibility now laid open for the first time
these many years? for Emmeline was to him now as ever the one dear
thing in all the world. The issue of his silent romancing was that
he resolved to return to her at the very earliest moment.
But he could not abandon his professional work on the instant. He
did not get really quite free from engagements till four months
later; but, though suffering throes of impatience continually, he
said to himself every day: 'If she has continued to love me nine
years she will love me ten; she will think the more tenderly of me
when her present hours of solitude shall have done their proper
work; old times will revive with the cessation of her recent
experience, and every day will favour my return.'
The enforced interval soon passed, and he duly arrived in England,
reaching the village of Batton on a certain winter day between
twelve and thirteen months subsequent to the time of the Duke's
death.
It was evening; yet such was Alwyn's impatience that he could not
forbear taking, this very night, one look at the castle which
Emmeline had entered as unhappy mistress ten years before. He
threaded the park trees, gazed in passing at well-known outlines
which rose against the dim sky, and was soon interested in observing
that lively country-people, in parties of two and three, were
walking before and behind him up the interlaced avenue to the castle
gateway.
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