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"I did not know he was ill till very lately. His last letter was
a cheerful one, and I supposed that all was right till chance
revealed the truth. I came on at once. I was intending to come
anyway. I have business here, as you probably know, Miss Scott."
She shook her head. "I know very little about business," said she.
"My brother has not told you why he expected me?"
"He has not even told me that he expected you."
"No?" The word was highly expressive; there was surprise in it and
a touch of wonder, but more than all, satisfaction. " Oswald was
always close-mouthed," he declared. " It's a good fault; I'm
obliged to the boy."
These last words were uttered with a lightness which imposed upon
his two highly agitated hearers, causing Mr. Challoner to frown and
Doris to shrink back in indignation at the man who could indulge in
a sportive suggestion in presence of such fears, if not of such
memories, as the situation evoked. But to one who knew the strong
and self-contained man - to Sweetwater possibly, had he been present,
- there was in this very attempt - in his quiet manner and in the
strange and fitful flash of his ordinarily quick eye, that which
showed he was labouring - and had been labouring almost from his
first entrance, under an excitement of thought and feeling which in
one of his powerfully organised nature must end and that soon in an
outburst of mysterious passion which would carry everything before
it. But he did not mean that it should happen here. He was too
accustomed to self-command to forget himself in this presence. He
would hold these rampant dogs in leash till the hour of solitude;
then - a glittering smile twisted his lips as he continued to gaze,
first at the girl who had just entered his life, and then at the
man he had every reason to distrust, and with that firm restraint
upon himself still in full force, remarked, with a courteous
inclination:
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