All the preparations for the luncheon had been completed; nobody
was there. The places to be occupied by the guests were indicated
by cards bearing their names. Moody found Isabel's card, and put his
bracelet inside the folded napkin on her plate. For a while he stood
with his hand on the table, thinking. The temptation to communicate once
more with Isabel before he lost her forever, was fast getting the better
of his powers of resistance.
"If I could persuade her to write a word to say she liked her bracelet,"
he thought, "it would be a comfort when I go back to my solitary life."
He tore a leaf out of his pocket book and wrote on it, "One line to say
you accept my gift and my good wishes. Put it under the cushion of your
chair, and I shall find it when the company have left the tent." He
slipped the paper into the case which held the bracelet, and instead of
leaving the farm as he had intended, turned back to the shelter of the
shrubbery.
CHAPTER XXI.
HARDYMAN went on to the cottage. He found Isabel in some agitation.
And there, by her side, with his tail wagging slowly, and his eye on
Hardyman in expectation of a possible kick--there was the lost Tommie!
"Has Lady Lydiard gone?" Isabel asked eagerly.
"Yes," said Hardyman. "Where did you find the dog?"
As events had ordered it, the dog had found Isabel, under these
circumstances.
The appearance of Lady Lydiard's card in the smoking-room had been an
alarming event for Lady Lydiard's adopted daughter.
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