Then, when it was over, she rose in her lithe way and returned to the drawing-room, followed by Webster.
“Now, I am going to give you a great surprise,” she said; “where will you sit?”
He drew a chair and placed it near her.
“Well, I am prepared to be surprised,” he answered, with a smile.
“Yet you will never guess where I was yesterday. You will never guess who I saw. I went down to Woodlea Hall; I had a long interview with John Temple, its new owner.”
A dark flush rose to Webster’s face as he listened to these words.
“I went, in fact, to try to do a stroke of business, and I did it. You did not seem inclined to do it for me, and there was no one else in whom I had absolute trust but myself. I went to Woodlea for the purpose of seeing John Temple, and making him a polite offer to get rid of me. It is a splendid place, and I told him that I had no idea I had made such a good match.”
“And you saw him?” said Webster, with a great effort.
“Of course I saw him. I told him I was quite as tired of being married to him as he could be of being married to me. And I told him also it was no use his trying to get a divorce from me, as he had nothing to go upon. ‘But,’ I added, ‘I can get one from you. I have only to invent that you tore the hair out of my head, and beat me black and blue, to win my case’ and my gentleman did not deny it.”
“But surely you will not—”