"
A jealous pang smote the young man's heart as he recalled the past.
"You pity him, Pauline, and pity is akin to love."
"I only pity what I respect. Rest content, my husband."
Steadily her eyes met his, and the hand whose only ornament was a
wedding ring went to meet the one folded on his arm with a confiding
gesture that made the action a caress.
"I will try to be, yet mine is a hard part," Manuel answered with a
sigh, then silently they both paced on.
Gilbert Redmond lounged behind his wife's chair, looking intensely
bored.
"Have you had enough of this folly, Babie?"
"No, we have but just come. Let us dance."
"Too late; they have begun."
"Then go about with me. It's very tiresome sitting here."
"It is too warm to walk in all that crowd, child."
"You are so indolent! Tell me who people are as they pass. I know no one
here."
"Nor I."
But his act belied the words, for as they passed his lips he rose erect,
with a smothered exclamation and startled face, as if a ghost had
suddenly confronted him. The throng had thinned, and as his wife
followed the direction of his glance, she saw no uncanny apparition to
cause such evident dismay, but a woman fair-haired, violet-eyed,
blooming and serene, sweeping down the long hall with noiseless grace.
An air of sumptuous life pervaded her, the shimmer of bridal snow
surrounded her, bridal gifts shone on neck and arms, and bridal
happiness seemed to touch her with its tender charm as she looked up at
her companion, as if there were but one human being in the world to her.
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