Blind Love

The doctor's wife followed Miss Henley out of the room, as far as the

landing--and waited there.

She had her reasons for placing this restraint on herself. The position

of the landing concealed her from the view of a person in the hall. If

she only listened for the sound of voices she might safely discover

whether Lord Harry was, or was not, still in the house. In the first

event, it would be easy to interrupt his interview with Iris, before

the talk could lead to disclosures which Mrs. Vimpany had every reason

to dread. In the second event, there would be no need to show herself.

Meanwhile, Iris opened the dining-room door and looked in.

Nobody was there. The one other room on the ground floor, situated at

the back of the building, was the doctor's consulting-room. She knocked

at the door. Mr. Vimpany's voice answered: "Come in." There he was

alone, drinking brandy and water, and smoking his big black cigar.

"Where is Lord Harry?" she said.

"In Ireland, I suppose," Mr. Vimpany answered quietly.

Iris wasted no time in making useless inquiries. She closed the door

again, and left him. He, too, was undoubtedly in the conspiracy to keep

her deceived. How had it been done? Where was the wild lord, at that

moment?

Whilst she was pursuing these reflections in the hall, Rhoda came up

from the servants' tea-table in the kitchen. Her mistress gave her the

necessary instructions for packing, and promised to help her before

long. Mrs. Vimpany's audacious resolution to dispute the evidence of

her own senses, still dwelt on Miss Henley's mind. Too angry to think

of the embarrassment which an interview with Lord Harry would produce,

after they had said their farewell words in Ireland, she was determined

to prevent the doctor's wife from speaking to him first, and claiming

him as an accomplice in her impudent denial of the truth. If he had

been, by any chance, deluded into leaving the house, he would sooner or

later discover the trick that had been played on him, and would

certainly return. Iris took a chair in the hall.

* * * * * * * It is due to the doctor to relate that he had indeed justified his

wife's confidence in him.

The diamond pin, undergoing valuation in London, still represented a

present terror in his mind. The money, the money--he was the most

attentive husband in England when he thought of the money! At the time

when Lord Harry's carriage stopped at his house-door, he was in the

dining-room, taking a bottle of brandy from the cellaret in the

sideboard. Looking instantly out of the window, he discovered who the

visitor was, and decided on consulting his instructions in the

pocket-diary. The attempt was rendered useless, as soon as he had

opened the book, by the unlucky activity of the servant in answering

the door. Her master stopped her in the hall. He was pleasantly

conscious of the recovery of his cunning. But his memory (far from

active under the most favourable circumstances) was slower than ever at

helping him now. On the spur of the moment he could only call to mind

that he had been ordered to prevent a meeting between Lord Harry and

Iris. "Show the gentleman into my consulting-room," he said.