"I know; Tom told me; Guy is coming with Lucy," Maddy answered, and
relieving herself from Jessie, she turned to Agnes, asking where Mrs.
Noah was, and if she might go to her for a moment.
"Oh, Maddy, child, I'm sorry you've come to-day," Mrs. Noah said, as
she chafed Maddy's cold hands, and leading her to the fire, made her
sit down, while she untied her hood, and removed her cloak and furs.
"I did not know it, or I should have stayed away," Maddy replied; "I
shall not stay, as it is. I cannot see them to-day. Charlie will drive
me back before the train is due; but what did he say? And how is
Lucy?" "He did not mention her. There's the dispatch" and Mrs. Noah
handed to Maddy the telegram, received that morning, and which was
simply as follows: "The steamer is here. Shall be at the station at five o'clock P. M.
GUY REMINGTON."
Twice Maddy read it over, experiencing much the same feeling she would
have experienced had it been her death warrant she was reading.
"At five o'clock. I must go before that," she said, sighing as she
remembered how, one year ago that day, she was traveling over the very
route where Guy was now traveling with his bride. Did he think of it?
think of his long waiting at the depot, or of that memorable ride, the
events of which grew more and more distinct in her memory, making her
cheeks burn even now, as she recalled his many acts of tenderness and
care.
Laying the telegram on the table, she went with Mrs. Noah through the
rooms, warmed and made ready for the bride, lingering longest in
Lucy's, which the bridal decorations, and the bright fire blazing in
the grate made singularly inviting. As yet, there were no flowers
there, and Maddy claimed the privilege of arranging them for this room
herself. Agnes had almost stripped the conservatory; but Maddy found
enough to form a most tasteful bouquet, which she placed upon a marble
dressing table; then within a slip of paper which she folded across
the top, she wrote: "Welcome to the bride."
"They both will recognize my handwriting; they'll know I've been
here," she thought, as with one long, last, sad look at the room, she
walked away.
They were laying the table for dinner now, and with a kind of dizzy,
uncertain feeling, Maddy watched the servants hurrying to and fro,
bringing out the choicest china, and the glittering silver, in honor
of the bride. Comparatively, it was not long since a little,
frightened, homesick girl, she first sat down with Guy at that table,
from which the proud Agnes would have banished her; but it seemed to
her an age, so much of happiness and pain had come to her since then.
There was a place for her there now, a place near Guy; but she should
not fill it. She could not stay; and she astonished Agnes and Jessie,
just as they were going to make their dinner toilet, by announcing her
intention of going home. She was not dressed to meet Mrs. Remington,
she said, shuddering as for the first time she pronounced a name which
the servants had frequently used, and which jarred on her ear, every
time she heard it. She was not dressed appropriately to meet an
English lady. Flora of course would stay, she said, as it was natural
she should, to greet her new mistress; but she must go, and finding
Charlie Green she bade him bring around the buggy.