“Good-by!” she murmured against his face, “good-by! good-by! good-by!”

Mrs. Conyers had seen Rowan and Isabel together in the parlors early in the evening.  She had seen them, late in the evening, quit the house.  She had counted the minutes till they returned and she had marked their agitation as they parted.  The closest association lasting from childhood until now had convinced her of the straightforwardness of Isabel’s character; and the events of the night were naturally accepted by her as evidences of the renewal of relationship with Rowan, if not as yet of complete reconciliation.

She herself had encountered during the evening unexpected slights and repulses.  Her hostesses had been cool, but she expected them to be cool:  they did not like her nor she them.  But Judge Morris had avoided her; the Hardages had avoided her; each member of the Meredith family had avoided her; Isabel had avoided her; even Harriet, when once she crossed the rooms to her, had with an incomprehensible flare of temper turned her back and sought refuge with Miss Anna.  She was very angry.

But overbalancing the indignities of the evening was now this supreme joy of Isabel’s return to what she believed to be Isabel’s destiny.  She sent her grandson home that she might have the drive with the girl alone.  When Isabel, upon entering the carriage, her head and eyes closely muffled in her shawl, had withdrawn as far as possible into one corner and remained silent on the way, she refrained from intrusion, believing that she understood the emotions dominating her behavior.

The carriage drew up at the door.  She got out quickly and passed to her room—­with a motive of her own.

Isabel lingered.  She ascended the steps without conscious will.  At the top she missed her shawl:  it had become entangled in the fringe of a window strap, had slipped from her bare shoulders as she set her foot on the pavement, and now lay in the track of the carriage wheels.  As she picked it up, an owl flew viciously close to her face.  What memories, what memories came back to her!  With a shiver she went over to a frame-like opening in the foliage on one side of the veranda and stood looking toward the horizon where the moon had sunk on that other night—­that first night of her sorrow.  How long it was since then!

At any other time she would have dreaded the parting which must take place with her grandmother:  now what a little matter it seemed!

As she tapped and opened the door, she put her hand quickly before her eyes, blinded by the flood of light which streamed out into the dark hall.  Every gas-jet was turned on—­around the walls, in the chandelier; and under the chandelier stood her grandmother, waiting, her eyes fixed expectantly on the door, her countenance softened with returning affection, the fire of triumph in her eyes.

She had unclasped from around her neck the diamond necklace of old family jewels, and held it in the pool of her rosy palms, as though it were a mass of clear separate raindrops rainbow-kindled.  It was looped about the tips of her two upright thumbs; part of it had slipped through the palms and flashed like a pendent arc of light below.