"You mean that you have found more lucrative and congenial employment?"
He hesitated, not willing to lie to her. Yet, after all, it was the truth. His new position was decidedly more lucrative.
"Yes," he replied, after a pause. "More lucrative—more congenial."
Grace was puzzled. His answers were vague. He was hiding something from her. Perhaps he thought her questions impertinent. After all, what right had she to question him?
"I'm pleased—for your sake," she answered, rather haughtily.
Armitage was quick to notice the difference in her tone, and intuitively he divined the reason.
"For my sake?" he echoed. "Why should you care?"
"I shall always be glad to hear that you are prospering and—happy," she answered.
He looked into her eyes without speaking. There was a melancholy, wistful expression in his face. He seemed to want to say something and did not dare. Embarrassed by the continuity of his fixed gaze, she averted her head and looked out of the window over into the park, where the nurses and children were playing on the green lawns. There was a silence that was almost painful. At last he broke it.
"You will be happy," he said. "One day you will be a Princess!"