CHAPTER XXI.

HARDYMAN went on to the cottage.  He found Isabel in some agitation.  And there, by her side, with his tail wagging slowly, and his eye on Hardyman in expectation of a possible kick—­there was the lost Tommie!

“Has Lady Lydiard gone?” Isabel asked eagerly.

“Yes,” said Hardyman.  “Where did you find the dog?”

As events had ordered it, the dog had found Isabel, under these circumstances.

The appearance of Lady Lydiard’s card in the smoking-room had been an alarming event for Lady Lydiard’s adopted daughter.  She was guiltily conscious of not having answered her Ladyship’s note, inclosed in Miss Pink’s letter, and of not having taken her Ladyship’s advice in regulating her conduct towards Hardyman.  As he rose to leave the room and receive his visitor in the grounds, Isabel begged him to say nothing of her presence at the farm, unless Lady Lydiard exhibited a forgiving turn of mind by asking to see her.  Left by herself in the smoking-room, she suddenly heard a bark in the passage which had a familiar sound in her ears.  She opened the door—­and in rushed Tommie, with one of his shrieks of delight!  Curiosity had taken him into the house.  He had heard the voices in the smoking-room; had recognized Isabel’s voice; and had waited, with his customary cunning and his customary distrust of strangers, until Hardyman was out of the way.  Isabel kissed and caressed him, and then drove him out again to the lawn, fearing that Lady Lydiard might return to look for him.  Going back to the smoking-room, she stood at the window watching for Hardyman’s return.  When the servants came to look for the dog, she could only tell them that she had last seen him in the grounds, not far from the cottage.  The useless search being abandoned, and the carriage having left the gate, who should crawl out from the back of a cupboard in which some empty hampers were placed but Tommie himself!  How he had contrived to get back to the smoking-room (unless she had omitted to completely close the door on her return) it was impossible to say.  But there he was, determined this time to stay with Isabel, and keeping in his hiding place until he heard the movement of the carriage-wheels, which informed him that his lawful mistress had left the cottage!  Isabel had at once called Hardyman, on the chance that the carriage might yet be stopped.  It was already out of sight, and nobody knew which of two roads it had taken, both leading to London.  In this emergency, Isabel could only look at Hardyman and ask what was to be done.

“I can’t spare a servant till after the party,” he answered.  “The dog must be tied up in the stables.”

Isabel shook her head.  Tommie was not accustomed to be tied up.  He would make a disturbance, and he would be beaten by the grooms.  “I will take care of him,” she said.  “He won’t leave me.”