.

LOVE AND RAGE.
Lord Rotherby, descending from that interview with his mother, espied Hortensia crossing the hall below.

Forgetting his dignity, he quickened his movements, and took the remainder of the stairs two at a stride.
But, then, his lordship was excited and angry, and considerations of dignity did not obtain with him at the time.

For that matter, they seldom did.
"Hortensia! Hortensia!" he called to her, and at his call she paused.
Not once during the month that was past--and during which he had, for the most part, kept his room, to all intents a prisoner--had she exchanged so much as a word with him.

Thus, not seeing him, she had been able, to an extent, to exclude him from her thoughts, which, naturally enough, were reluctant to entertain him for their guest.
Her calm, as she paused now in acquiescence to his bidding, was such that it almost surprised herself.