'You agree to what I suggested this morning, Cecil?'
'No, I don't.'
'Very well, then; I shan't dine with you.'
'Oh, confound it! I don't want to go out again.'
'Pray don't. I shall dine in my room,' and she walked to the door. As she left the room she turned round and said—
'Oh, to think how that creature must be enjoying it!' and went upstairs.
'If she isn't enjoying it any more than I am, she isn't having much of a time,' said Cecil aloud to himself. He then dined in solemn silence, Hyacinth (with a headache) being served in her own room.
When dinner was over he was glancing through the paper, wondering how he should spend the evening, when a note arrived by a messenger. He saw it was for Hyacinth, and in Eugenia's handwriting.
A few minutes later she came down, holding it in her hand.
'Cecil, she has written to me. She says they're going for a long yachting cruise, that they won't be back in their house for a year.'