"If you wish to please me, you will not continue this conversation, Marion; in fact, I decline to say another word on the subject. I have said all that was needful, let it end now."
"You say this, knowing that I am dissatisfied, Lance," said Lady Marion.
"I say it, hoping that you intend to obey me," he replied.
Without another word, and in perfect silence, Lady Chandos quitted the room, her heart beating with indignation.
"He will not explain to me," she said; "I will find out for myself."
She resolved from that moment to watch him, and to find out for herself that which he refused to tell her. She could not bring herself to believe that there was really anything between her husband and Madame Vanira; he had always been so good, so devoted to herself.
But the result of her watching was bad; it showed that her husband had other interests; much of his time was spent from home; a cloud came between them; when she saw him leaving home she was too proud to ask him where he was going, and if even by chance she did ask, his reply was never a conciliatory one.
It was quite by accident she learned he went often to Highgate. In the stables were a fine pair of grays; she liked using them better than any other horses they had, and one morning the carriage came to the door with a pair of chestnuts she particularly disliked.
"Where are the grays?" she asked of the coachman.
"One of them fell yesterday, my lady," said the man, touching his hat.