The dinghy took him ashore, and he put up at the large and crowded
hotel, and spent the evening wishing that he was on the _Seagull_. The
next day it occurred to him that he was within a ride of Anglemere, and
he procured a horse and rode out to it. He had very little desire to see
the chief of his "places," and when he had ridden up to the terrace he
turned his horse down a side road and regained his hotel, little
thinking that he had passed the window of Nell's room, that her eyes had
rested upon him.
The sight of the old place had awakened memories which saddened him. He
had played on that terrace, on the lawn beneath, when a boy. Even as a
boy he had learned to regard Anglemere as his future home; and he had
been, in a childish way, proud of the fact. It was his now--and what
little pride and pleasure could be found in its possession! If
Nell----With something like an oath he dragged himself up the grandiose
stairs of the hotel, and went to bed.
In the morning the mate of the yacht brought him a letter from Lady
Angleford. It said that she had heard that he had arrived at
Southampton, and that she hoped he would go on to Anglemere and see and
approve of the alterations and improvements she was attempting, and that
he would "go into residence" in three weeks' time, as she had asked a
housewarming party to welcome him.
Drake stared at the letter moodily, and wished himself among the big
game in Africa, or salmon fishing in Norway; but he felt that Lady
Angleford was trying to do her duty by him, and knew that he ought to
follow suit.
He gravitated between the hotel and his yacht for a few days, his face
growing sterner and more moody each day, then he rode out to Anglemere
again.
It was a lovely afternoon, and, if he had not been haunted by the vision
of Nell, Drake would have reveled in the blue sky, the soft breeze, the
singing of the birds, and the scent of the flowers; but all these
recalled Nell and Shorne Mills, and only made the aching of his heart
more acute.
He wondered, as he rode along the well-kept roads, whether she was still
at Shorne Mills; whether she had forgotten him, whether she was married.
At the last thought, the blood rushed to his head, and he jerked the
reins so that the good horse broke into a gallop which carried Drake to
the southern lodge, where--if he could but have known it!--dwelt Nell
herself!