Lucius Davoren, Volume II

Lucius had a long interview with Mrs. Bertram on the following morning, and he and Geoffrey left Stillmington together in the afternoon; to the despair of the proprietor of the family hotel, who had not had such a customer as Mr. Hossack for many years, not even during that halcyon period which he spoke of fondly as ‘our 'untin' season. ' They travelled to London by the same express-train, having a long and friendly talk on the way, Geoffrey _en route_ for Christiana, with a view to shooting grouse among the Norwegian hills, and if it were possible in some measure to stifle the pangs of hopeless love in the keen joys of the sportsman; Lucius to return to the beaten round of a parish doctor's life, brightened only by those happy hours which he spent in the old house with Lucille.

It was too late to visit Cedar House on the evening of his return from Stillmington, so Lucius and Geoffrey dined, or supped, together at the Cosmopolitan, and had, what the latter called, ‘a gaudy night; ' a night of prolonged and confidential talk rather than of deep drinking, however; for Lucius was the most temperate of men, and with Geoffrey pleasure never meant dissipation. They talked of the future; and hope kindled in Geoffrey's breast as they talked. Not always would Fate be inexorable; not always would the woman he loved be inaccessible to his prayers.