"You look tired," he said. "Violet, I don't think this air suits you——"
She laughed sarcastically.
"Really you are too transparent. Blair has been telling you I want a change and you can't summon up courage to tell me so openly! What cowards men are!"
"Blair has not been speaking to me," he said. "But, all the same, I think you should go away, both of you. He looks bored, don't you think; rather off tone——"
"No, I don't think—I am sure," she retorted.
"Leyton never is very good in the winter, I believe," he said, hastily. "What do you say to—Naples for instance?"
"What do you say?" she responded, her keen eyes seeking his fixed steadily upon some point above her head. "That is the question, because whatever place you say, will doubtless be the one selected. I wonder why you take such an interest in us both?" and her eyes grew hard as steel. "You can say that I am pining for it, that it is the one desire of my heart, that I shall die if I'm not taken there at once——"
"Don't jest on such a grewsome topic," he said. "Joking apart, I will venture to prophesy that you will be happier at Naples than you have ever been in your life. It is so warm there."
"Even that will not be wonderful," she retorted; then suddenly her voice changed, and she looked up at him almost fiercely. "Do you think it will be warm enough to thaw Blair's heart? Austin, will he never forget that girl? Oh, Heaven! how I hate her."