All in vain that the Newfoundland dog came to her side,
licking her hands and gazing upon her with a wondering, human look
of intelligent. Grace had no thought for Rover or for Kitty, and
she wept on, sometimes for Arthur, sometimes for Edith, but
oftener for the young girl who years ago refused the love offered
her by Richard Harrington; and then she wondered if it were
possible that Edith had so soon ceased to care for Arthur,
"I can tell from her manner," she thought; and with her mind thus
brought to the call she would make at Collingwood, she dried her
eyes, and speaking playfully to her dumb pets, returned to the
house a sad, subdued woman, whose part in the drama of Richard
Harrington was effectually played out.
That afternoon, about three o'clock, a carriage bearing Grace
Atherton, wound slowly up the hill to Collingwood and when it
reached the door a radiant, beautiful woman stepped out, her face
all wreathed in smiles and her voice full of sweetness as she
greeted Richard, who came forth to meet her.
"A pretty march you've stolen upon me," she began, in a light,
bantering tone--"you and Edith--never asked my consent or said so
much as 'by your leave' but no matter, I congratulate you all the
same.
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