Page:Maud Howe - Atlanta in the South.djvu/182

 learned the graceful play of her movements, the infinite changefulness of her expression.

To these three people came Robert Feuardent unannounced. The curtain of the door was pushed gently aside, and he who had left them flushed and excited, in haste and resentment, had come back white, quiet, and full of that strange awe which falls upon those who have escaped a great calamity.

Mrs. Harden arose and came to meet him, saying, "What has happened to you? You look so strangely—Philip, a glass of wine." And the pale girl at the window turned and looked at him, and twisted the dog's ears till it howled and licked her hand deprecatingly.

"Thank you, I am quite well,—or shall be soon," said Robert, in a voice that would not be quite firm. "I have come to speak to you, Philip, and it is well that these two witnesses are here to listen to what I have to say. I have done you a great wrong,—a wrong that I have come to set right." He paused a moment and looked at Margaret, as if to gain courage from her face. "On the thirteenth day of December, four months ago this very night, you were summoned from this house hastily and peremptorily. The message brought you was an unusual one, and aroused comment at the time. The next day the world knew that a man,"—his lips trembled