“Did you really?” said Esmeralda. “I often wonder why you should want to come into the drawing-room. It must seem so dull to you, and you are always so merry after we leave you. We can hear you laughing. I suppose you are telling funny stories?”
“We didn’t to-night,” said Norman. “The conversation was rather limited to one subject.”
“I wonder what that was?” she said, with a smile.
“Well, it was about you,” he said. “It isn’t fair to tell tales out of school, but I suppose a bride expects to be talked about; and the duke was very great. Selvaine says that you have bewitched him.”
Esmeralda sighed slightly.
“I am very fond of him,” she said.
“And he returns the compliment tenfold,” remarked Norman. “You are to have your portrait painted by Millais—but perhaps I ought to have left Trafford to tell you that.”
“Why?” she asked.
Norman looked rather surprised.
“Oh, because he’d like to. It is a husband’s privilege to bring all good news to his wife.”