I don't know how deeply she flushed as she made, in the form of her
question, this avowal, which was a retraction of a former denial and the
real truth, as I permitted myself to believe; but was aware of the
colour of my own cheeks while I took my way to Stresa--a walk of half an
hour--in the attenuating night. The new and singular character in which
she had appeared to me produced in me an emotion that would have made
sitting still in a carriage impossible. This same stress kept me up
after I had reached my hotel; as I knew I shouldn't sleep it was useless
to go to bed. Long, however, as I deferred this ceremony, Archie had not
reappeared when the inn-lights began here and there to be dispensed
with. I felt even slightly anxious for him, wondering at possible
mischances. Then I reflected that in case of an accident on the lake,
that is of his continued absence from Baveno--Mrs. Pallant would already
have dispatched me a messenger. It was foolish moreover to suppose
anything could have happened to him after putting off from Baveno by
water to rejoin me, for the evening was absolutely windless and more
than sufficiently clear and the lake as calm as glass. Besides I had
unlimited confidence in his power to take care of himself in a much
tighter place. I went to my room at last; his own was at some distance,
the people of the hotel not having been able--it was the height of the
autumn season--to make us contiguous. Before I went to bed I had
occasion to ring for a servant, and I then learned by a chance enquiry
that my nephew had returned an hour before and had gone straight to his
own quarters. I hadn't supposed he could come in without my seeing him--
I was wandering about the saloons and terraces--and it had not occurred
to me to knock at his door. I had half a mind to do so now--I was so
anxious as to how I should find him; but I checked myself, for evidently
he had wanted to dodge me. This didn't diminish my curiosity, and I
slept even less than I had expected. His so markedly shirking our
encounter--for if he hadn't perceived me downstairs he might have looked