What could it possibly mean?
Lord Mountdean at the Dower House! He fancied some accident must have happened to him.
He had never been to the Dower House since the night when he took his young wife thither, and as he rode along his thoughts recurred to that terrible evening.

Would he see her now, he wondered, and would she, in her shy, pretty way, advance to meet him?
It could not surely be that she was ill, and that the earl, having heard of it, had sent for him.
No, that could not be--for the note said that something wonderful had occurred.
Speculation was evidently useless--the only thing to be done was to hasten as quickly as he could, and learn for himself what it all meant.
He rode perhaps faster than he had ever ridden in his life before.

When he reached the Dower House the horse was bathed in foam.

He thought to himself, as he rang the bell at the outer gate, how strange it was that he--the husband--should be standing there ringing for admittance.
A servant opened the gate, and Lord Arleigh asked if the Earl of Mountdean was within, and was told that he was.
"There is nothing the matter, I hope," said Lord Arleigh--"nothing wrong ?" The servant replied that something strange had happened, but he could not tell what it was.

He did not think there was anything seriously wrong.