Of course Mrs. Vimpany was quite right. Iris had gone back to her
husband. She arrived, in fact, at the cottage in the evening just
before dark--in the falling day, when some people are more than
commonly sensitive to sights and sounds, and when the eyes are more apt
than at other times to be deceived by strange appearances. Iris walked
into the garden, finding no one there. She opened the door with her own
key and let herself in. The house struck her as strangely empty and
silent. She opened the dining-room door: no one was there. Like all
French dining-rooms, it was used for no other purpose than for eating,
and furnished with little more than the barest necessaries. She closed
the door and opened that of the salon: that also was empty. She called
her husband: there was no answer. She called the name of the cook:
there was no answer. It was fortunate that she did not open the door of
the spare room, for there lay the body of the dead man. She went
upstairs to her husband's room. That too was empty. But there was
something lying on the table--a photograph. She took it up. Her face
became white suddenly and swiftly. She shrieked aloud, then drooped the
picture and fell fainting to the ground. For the photograph was nothing
less than that of her husband, dead in his white graveclothes, his
hands composed, his eyes closed, his cheek waxen.
The cry fell upon the ears of Lord Harry, who was in the garden below.
He rushed into the house and lifted his wife upon the bed. The
photograph showed him plainly what had happened.
She came to her senses again, but seeing her husband alive before her,
and remembering what she had seen, she shrieked again, and fell into
another swoon.
"What is to be done now?" asked the husband. "What shall I tell her?
How shall I make her understand? What can I do for her?"
As for help, there was none: the nurse was gone on some errand; the
doctor was arranging for the funeral of Oxbye under the name of Lord
Harry Norland; the cottage was empty.
Such a fainting fit does not last for ever. Iris came round, and sat
up, looking wildly around.
"What is it?" she cried. "What does it mean?"
"It means, my love, that you have returned to your husband." He laid an
arm round her, and kissed her again and again.
"You are my Harry!--living!--my own Harry?"
"Your own Harry, my darling. What else should I be?"