VIII
"One should, however, give happy accidents a certain encouragement," hereflected, as he woke next morning. "She said it was her habit. Wewill seek her again in the hours immaculate."
He sought her far and near. He wandered the park till breakfast time.The appropriate scene was set: the familiar sheep were there, thetrees, the birds, the dewy swards, the sunshine and the shadows:but--though, at each new turning, as each new prospect opened,expectancy anew looked eagerly from his eyes--the lady of the piece wasever missing.
"And yet you boasted it was your habit," bitterly he reproached hisvision of her.
All day he held out to happy accidents what encouragement he might.All day he roamed the park, and, as the day dragged on, became a deeplydejected man. Even the certitude of seeing her to-morrow was of smallcomfort.
"Two minutes before Mass, and three minutes after--what is that?" hegrumbled.
Towards five o'clock he took a resolution.
"There are such things as accidents, but there is also," he argued,"such a thing as design. Why is man endowed with free-will? I don'tcare how it may look, nor what they may think. I 'm going to call uponher, I 'm going to ask myself to tea."
In this, however, he reckoned without the keeper of her door.
"The ladies er _ait_, sir," announced that prim-lipped functionary.
"Now farewell hope," he mourned, as the door closed in his face."There's nothing left for me to do but to go for a thundering longwalk, and tire myself into oblivion. I will walk to Wetherleigh."
Head bent, eyes downcast, sternly resolved to banish her from histhought, he set forwards, with rapid, dogged steps. He had gone, itmay be, a hundred yards, when a voice stopped him.
"Sh--sh! Please--please!" it whispered.