Madelon did not notice him till he was close
behind her, and then turned round with a little start,
dropping her book.
"I did not think it was you--" she began; then seeing a
stranger, stopped short in the middle of her speech.
"I am afraid I have startled you," said the gentleman in
English-French, but with a pleasant voice and manner, "and
disappointed you too."
"I beg your pardon, Monsieur," she answered, "I thought it was
papa; I have been looking for him so long," and she turned
round to the window again.
It was five years since Horace Graham and Madeleine had spent
an hour together in the courtyard at Chaudfontaine, so that it
was not surprising that they did not at once recognise each
other at this second unforeseen meeting; the young man, as
well as the child, had then been of an age to which five years
cannot be added without bringing with them most appreciable
changes. For Graham, these years had been precisely that
transition period in which a lad separates himself from the
aggregate mass of youth, and stands forth in the world as a
man of his own right, according to that which is in him.
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