CHAPTER XXVIII
"REPLY PAID"
Valentia had been hurt at the tone in which Harry had given his orders, and turned from him to help to find the mowing-machine.
"Doesn't she look jolly at sunrise? All that pink and mauve in the sky tones in so well. It seems to suit her. That's how she really should be painted," said Harry, in the tone of an artist admiring his model. "Don't you think so?"
"Yes," said Romer.
"She looks like a golden rose," Harry went on. He wanted to please Val, who he saw was annoyed with him, and to emphasise the openness of his admiration to Romer. "Doesn't she?"
"Quite," said her husband.
Harry felt the morning was spoilt and the situation absurd. He could not bear to be thwarted in any way. He went back to his own room, bounced angrily on to his bed, and went to sleep again, after having seen Valentia through the window helping to push the mower, and saying to himself—
"How like a woman! I shall go up to town with Van Buren and send a wire to Alec."
This was his revenge.