CHAPTER XXI.
THE next morning Kenelm surprised the party at breakfast by appearing
in the coarse habiliments in which he had first made his host's
acquaintance. He did not glance towards Cecilia when he announced his
departure; but, his eye resting on Mrs. Campion, he smiled, perhaps a
little sadly, at seeing her countenance brighten up and hearing her
give a short sigh of relief. Travers tried hard to induce him to stay
a few days longer, but Kenelm was firm. "The summer is wearing away,"
said he, "and I have far to go before the flowers fade and the snows
fall. On the third night from this I shall sleep on foreign soil."
"You are going abroad, then?" asked Mrs. Campion.
"Yes."
"A sudden resolution, Mr. Chillingly. The other day you talked of
visiting the Scotch lakes."
"True; but, on reflection, they will be crowded with holiday tourists,
many of whom I shall probably know. Abroad I shall be free, for I
shall be unknown."
"I suppose you will be back for the hunting season," said Travers.
"I think not. I do not hunt foxes."
"Probably we shall at all events meet in London," said Travers. "I
think, after long rustication, that a season or two in the bustling
capital may be a salutary change for mind as well as for body; and it
is time that Cecilia were presented and her court-dress specially
commemorated in the columns of the 'Morning Post.'"
Cecilia was seemingly too busied behind the tea-urn to heed this
reference to her debut.
"I shall miss you terribly," cried Travers, a few moments afterwards,
and with a hearty emphasis. "I declare that you have quite unsettled
me. Your quaint sayings will be ringing in my ears long after you are
gone."
There was a rustle as of a woman's dress in sudden change of movement
behind the tea-urn.
"Cissy," said Mrs. Campion, "are we ever to have our tea?"
"I beg pardon," answered a voice behind the urn. "I hear Pompey" (the
Skye terrier) "whining on the lawn. They have shut him out. I will
be back presently."
Cecilia rose and was gone. Mrs. Campion took her place at the
tea-urn.
"It is quite absurd of Cissy to be so fond of that hideous dog," said
Travers, petulantly.
"Its hideousness is its beauty," returned Mrs. Campion, laughing.
"Mr. Belvoir selected it for her as having the longest back and the
shortest legs of any dog he could find in Scotland."
"Ah, George gave it to her; I forgot that," said Travers, laughing
pleasantly.
It was some minutes before Miss Travers returned with the Skye
terrier, and she seemed to have recovered her spirits in regaining
that ornamental accession to the party; talking very quickly and
gayly, and with flushed cheeks, like a young person excited by her own
overflow of mirth.
But when, half an hour afterwards, Kenelm took leave of her and Mrs.
Campion at the hall-door, the flush was gone, her lips were tightly
compressed, and her parting words were not audible. Then, as his
figure (side by side with her father, who accompanied his guest to the
lodge) swiftly passed across the lawn and vanished amid the trees
beyond, Mrs. Campion wound a mother-like arm around her waist and
kissed her. Cecilia shivered and turned her face to her friend
smiling; but such a smile,--one of those smiles that seem brimful of
tears.
"Thank you, dear," she said meekly; and, gliding away towards the
flower-garden, lingered a while by the gate which Kenelm had opened
the night before. Then she went with languid steps up the green
slopes towards the ruined priory.
