'Fie, Tabitha!' 'I tell you it has not arrived!' she said, with some anger. 'I have not
got a lover, and everybody knows I haven't, and it's an insinuating thing
for you to say so!' Louis laughed, thinking how natural it was that a girl should so
emphatically deny circumstances that would not bear curious inquiry.
'Why, of course I meant myself,' he said soothingly. 'So, then, you will
not accept me?' 'I didn't know you meant yourself,' she replied. 'But I won't accept
you. And I think you ought not to jest on such subjects.' 'Well, perhaps not. However, don't let the Bishop see your bracelet, and all will be well. But mind, lovers are deceivers.' Tabitha laughed, and they parted, the girl entering the church. She had been feeling almost certain that, having accidentally found the bracelet somewhere, he had presented it in a whim to her as the first girl he met. Yet now she began to have momentary doubts whether he had not been
labouring under a mistake, and had imagined her to be the owner. The
bracelet was not valuable; it was, in fact, a mere toy,--the pair of
which this was one being a little present made to Lady Constantine by
Swithin on the day of their marriage; and she had not worn them with
sufficient frequency out of doors for Tabitha to recognize either as
positively her ladyship's. But when, out of sight of the blower, the
girl momentarily tried it on, in a corner by the organ, it seemed to her
that the ornament was possibly Lady Constantine's. Now that the pink
beads shone before her eyes on her own arm she remembered having seen a
bracelet with just such an effect gracing the wrist of Lady Constantine
upon one occasion. A temporary self-surrender to the sophism that if Mr.
Louis Glanville chose to give away anything belonging to his sister, she,
Tabitha, had a right to take it without question, was soon checked by a
resolve to carry the tempting strings of coral to her ladyship that
evening, and inquire the truth about them. This decided on she slipped
the bracelet into her pocket, and played her voluntaries with a light
heart.
* * * * *
Bishop Helmsdale did not tear himself away from Welland till about two
o'clock that afternoon, which was three hours later than he had intended
to leave. It was with a feeling of relief that Swithin, looking from the
top of the tower, saw the carriage drive out from the vicarage into the
turnpike road, and whirl the right reverend gentleman again towards
Warborne. The coast being now clear of him Swithin meditated how to see
Viviette, and explain what had happened. With this in view he waited
where he was till evening came on.