Woodgate and Mrs. Steel.
He was only embarrassed when Rachel rose and looked him in the eyes
before holding out her hand.
"Have you heard?" she asked him, in a voice as cold as her marble face,
but similarly redeemed and animated by its delicate and distant scorn.
"Yes," answered Langholm, sadly; "yes, I have heard."
"And yet--"
He interrupted her in another tone.
"I know what you are going to say! I give you warning, Mrs. Steel, I
won't listen to it. No 'and yets' for me; remember the belief I had,
long before I knew anything at all! It ought not to be a whit stronger
for what I guessed yesterday for myself, and what your husband has this
minute confirmed. Yet it is, if possible, ten thousand times stronger
and more sure!"
"I do remember," said Rachel, slowly; "and, in my turn, I believe what
you say."
But her face did not alter as she took his hand; her own was so cold
that he looked at her in alarm; and the whole woman seemed turned to
stone. Yet the dinner went on without further hitch; it might have been
the very smallest and homeliest affair, to which only these guests had
been invited. Indeed, the menu had been reduced, like the table, by the
unerring tact of Rachel's husband, so that there was no undue memorial
to the missing one-and-twenty, and the whole ordeal was curtailed.
Pages:
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237