the fire, and watched the swans disappear into the mist.
Then she leaned down for her cloak, and wrapped it about her, and turned away from the quay towards the trees, and the narrow twisting path that would bring her to Navron.
She tried to pick up the threads of her normal life. The children in their beds. James in his cot, with face flushed and fists clenched; Henrietta lying upon her face as she always did, her fair curls tumbled on the pillow; Prue, with open mouth, sleeping beside them. While William, faithful William, kept watch upon the house, and lied for her sake and his master's.
Soon the mist would clear, and the sun would come up over the trees beyond the river, and even now, as she came out of the woods and stood upon the lawn, the morning light laid a finger upon Navron, as it slept, still and shuttered, while she stood there watching it. She crept across the lawn, silver with dew, and tried the door. It was locked, of course. She waited a moment, and then went round to the courtyard behind the house, for William's window looked upon it, and it might be that she could make him hear, if she called softly. She listened beneath his window. It was open, and the curtain was not drawn.
'William?' she said softly. 'William, are you there?'
There was no answer, and stooping, she picked up a little pebble and threw it against the pane. In a moment his face appeared, and he stared at her as though she were a phantom, and then he put his finger to his lips and disappeared, She waited, anxiety in her heart, for his face was white and haggard, the face of a man who had not slept. James is ill, she thought, James is dead. He is going to tell me that James is dead. Then she heard him draw the bolts gently in the great door, and the door itself open a small space to admit her. 'The children?' she said, laying her hand on his sleeve, 'the children, are they ill?' He shook his head, still motioning her to silence, glancing over his shoulder to the stairway in the hall.
She entered the house, looking about her as she did so, and then, her heart leaping in sudden understanding, she saw the great-coat on the chair, the riding-whip, the usual disorder of arrival, and there was a hat flung carelessly upon the stone floor, and a second riding-whip, and a thick plaided rug.
'Sir Harry has come, my lady,' said William. 'He came just before sundown, he had ridden from London. And Lord Rockingham is with him.' She said nothing. She went on staring at the great-coat on the chair. And suddenly, from above, she heard the shrill yapping of a little spaniel dog.
Chapter XVI
ONCE AGAIN William glanced up the stairway, his small eyes gleaming in his pale face, but Dona shook her head silently, and crossing the hall on tip-toe she led the way into the salon. William lit two candles, and then stood before her, waiting for her to speak.
'What reason did he give?' she said. 'Why have they come?'
'I gather that Sir Harry was becoming restless in London without you, my lady,' said William, 'and a word from Lord Rockingham decided him. It seems that his lordship met a relative of Lord Godolphin's at Whitehall, who told him that Sir Harry's presence in Cornwall was urgently needed at the present time. That is all I could discover from their conversation at supper, my lady.'
'Yes,' said Dona, as though she had not heard him. 'Yes, it would be Rockingham. Harry is too lazy to come without persuasion,' William stood motionless before her, the candle in his hand.
'What did you tell Sir Harry?' she asked. 'How did you keep him from my room?'
For the first time a trace of a smile appeared on William's lace, and he looked at his mistress with understanding.
'Sir Harry would not have passed into your room, my lady,' he said, 'he must have slain me first. I explained to the gentlemen, as soon as they had dismounted, that you had been in bed for several days with a high fever, that at last you were obtaining some measure of sleep, and that it would be extremely prejudicial to your health if Sir Harry as much as ventured into the room. Absolute quiet was essential.'
'And he accepted your story?'
'Like a lamb, my lady. He swore a trifle at first, and cursed me for not having sent for him, but I explained that it was your ladyship's strict orders that he was not to be told. And then Miss Henrietta and Master James came running to meet Sir Harry, telling the same tale, that your ladyship was poorly and confined to your bed, and Prue of course came too, with a woebegone face, that your ladyship would not even admit her to tend upon you. So after having played with the children, and supped, and taken a turn round the gardens, my lady, Sir Harry and Lord Rockingham retired. Sir Harry is in the blue room, my lady.'
Dona smiled at him, and put her hand on his arm.
'Faithful one,' she said, 'and then you did not sleep yourself for thinking of the morning that was to come. And supposing I had not returned?'
'No doubt I would have arrived at some decision, my lady, although the problem was a little hard.'
'And my lord Rockingham? What did he say to all this?'
'His lordship appeared disappointed, my lady, that you were not down to receive them, but he said very little. It seemed to interest him when Prue told Sir Harry that no one was looking after you but myself. I observed that his lordship looked upon me with some curiosity, my lady, and if I might venture to say so, with new eyes.'
'He would, William, Lord Rockingham has that sort of mind. He is a person to watch, for he has a long nose like a terrier dog.'
'Yes, my lady.'
'It is strange, William, what fatality lies in the making-of plans. I thought to breakfast with your master in the creek, and to fish with him, and to swim, and to cook our supper under the stars again as we did last night, and now all that is finished and done with.'
'But not for long, my lady.'
'That we cannot tell. At all costs word must be sent to La Mouette, and she must leave the creek with the next tide.'
'It would be more prudent to wait until night-fall, my lady.'
'Your master will decide of course. Ah, William.'
'My lady?'
But she shook her head, shrugging her shoulders, telling him with her eyes the things that she could never say in speech, and suddenly he bent down, patting her shoulder as though she were Henrietta, his funny button mouth twisted.
'I know, my lady,' he said, 'but it will come all right. You will be together again,' and then because of the anticlimax of home-coming, because she was tired, because he patted her shoulder in his kind ridiculous way, she felt the tears running down her cheeks, and she could not stop them. 'Forgive me, William,' she said.
'My lady.'
'So foolish, so unutterably foolish and weak. It is something to do with having been so happy.'
'I know, my lady.'
'Because we were happy, William. And there was the sun, and the wind, and the sea, and-loveliness such as has never been.'
'I can imagine it, my lady.'
'It does not happen, often, does it?'
'Once in a million years, my lady.'
'Therefore I will shed no more tears, like a spoilt child. For whatever happens we have had what we have had. No one can take that from us. And I have been alive, who was never alive before. Now, William, I shall go to my room, and undress, and get into bed. And later in the morning you shall call me, with my breakfast, and when I am sufficiently prepared for the ordeal, I will see Sir Harry, and find out how long he intends to stay.'
'Very good, my lady.'
'And somehow, in some way, word must be sent to your master in the creek.'
'Yes, my lady.'
And so, with the daylight coming through the chinks in the shutters, they left the room, and Dona, her shoes in her hands and her cloak about her shoulders, crept up the stairway she had descended some five days earlier,
