What he cost her - 1877 Author:James Payn Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. A CHANCE OPINION. Cecil Landon had escaped from Grantham as a fowler out of the snare of the bird, but he still hankered after the bird. He ha... more »d heard her song that morning, though he had not seen her, and, unconscious siren that she was, it had once more fascinated him. He had escaped, but his safety gave him no contentment, and he almost regretted that he had not suffered himself to be taken captive. " Our thoughts are free," we are told, and in one sense, they too often are so, but we are not all masters of our thoughts; and Cecil had no more control over his own, than over the iron- steed that was whirling him to Middleton. When- he arrived there, however, and was waiting for the train that was to carry him to his destination, he so far came to himself as to send that telegram to his wife, of which we have heard, and also one to the manager at Wellborough, to announce his coming on that day. He did not know, of course, that the latter was at that moment sending word to Ella, that he had not arrived. As it happened, too, when he did arrive, the manager had been summoned elsewhere, and he sent those " full particulars by post "—as his telegram had promised, but which were by no means full—-without having seen him. His deception thereby became, as we have seen, much complicated; though, as it chanced when the time came for explanation, graver matters prevented Ella from demanding it. He arrived at his journey's end in due course, and transacted business at the office; and the duties that were so uncongenial to him were, for the first time, positively welcome; for while engaged in them he forgot to think of Rose Mytton, and the fever of his mind was for the time allayed. He did not encourage it, but never having been accustomed to the least mental disciplin...« less