"
"You have told me that before," answered the Frenchman, coolly, "and I
have promised that you shall be rich. But if I am to keep my promise,
you must submit yourself with unquestioning faith to my guidance. If
the path we must tread together is a dark one, tread it blindly. The
end will be success. And now tell me when you expect to see Douglas
Dale in London."
Sir Reginald explained his cousin's plans, and after a brief
conversation left the cottage. He heard Mrs. Carrington's birds
twittering in the cold January sunshine, and a passing glimpse through
the open doorway of the drawing-room revealed to him the exquisite
neatness and purity of the apartment, which even at this season was
adorned with a few flowers.
"Strange!" he thought to himself, as he left the house; "any stranger
entering that abode would imagine it the very shrine of domestic peace
and simple happiness, and yet it is inhabited by a fiend."
He went back to town. He dined alone in his dingy lodging, scarcely
daring to show himself at his club--Lord Caversham had spoken so
plainly; and had, no doubt, spoken to others still more plainly.
Reginald Eversleigh's face grew hot with shame as he remembered the
insults he had been obliged to endure with pretended unconsciousness.
He feared to encounter other men who also had been losers at Hilton
House, and who might speak as significantly as the viscount had spoken.
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