He was in word and look and tone Ruth's most obedient servant.

Had she been less prejudiced she must have admired the admirable restraint with which he kept all exultation from his manner, for, after all, it is difficult to force a victory as he had forced his, and not to triumph.
It is to be feared that during that week he neglected a good deal of his duty to the Duke, leaving Trenchard to supply his place and undertake tasks of a seditious nature that should have been his own.
At heart, however, in spite of the stories current and the militia at Taunton, Wilding remained convinced--as did most of the other leading partisans of the Protestant Cause--that no such madness as this premature landing could be in contemplation by the Duke.

Besides, were it so, they must unfailingly have definite word of it; and they had none.
Trenchard was less assured, but Wilding laughed at the old rake's forebodings, and serenely went about the business of his marriage.
On the eve of the wedding he paid Ruth his last visit in the quality of a lover, and was received by her in the garden.

He found her looking paler than her wont, and there was a cloud of sadness on her brow, a haunting sadness in her eyes.

It touched him to the soul, and for a moment he wavered in his purpose.