"Yes, the De Veres and Murrays. But they stayed no time, and old Mrs. Murray was in a very bad temper. It appears Harry is more than ever determined about marrying the governess."
"I pity the governess, if she goes back to live with the old lady as a daughter-in-law."
"So do I. Oh, Marmaduke, have you got any eau-de-Cologne? Martha must have a weakness for it, as she never leaves me any."
"I see plenty in one of these bottles. Come and take it,"
I walk in, fastening my bracelet as I go.
"That's a pretty dress you have on to-night" says Marmaduke, regarding me critically before going in for a second battle with a refractory tie; already three lie in the corner slaughtered.
"Fancy your seeing anything about me worth admiring!" I reply; but, in spite of my words, my laugh is low and pleased. His tone, though quiet, has a ring of cordiality in it that for some time has been absent. A smile hovers round my lips; I lift my head and am about to make some little, trilling, saucy, honeyed speech, when my eyes fall upon a certain object that lies upon the toilet-table among the numerous other things he had just withdrawn from his pockets.
A tiny pale-pink three-cornered note rests, address uppermost, beneath my gaze. "Marmaduke Carrington, Esq."—no more. How well I knew it, the detestable, clear, beautiful writing!
I feel my lips compress, my cheeks grow ashy white. Turning abruptly, stung to the quick, I leave the room. "Will you not take the bottle with you?" calls out Marmaduke, and I answer, in rather a stifled voice, "No, thank you," and shut the door between us hastily.
Oh that that was all that separated us! I feel half mad with outraged pride and passion. That she should write him billets-doux in my own house, that he should receive them and treasure them, seems to me in my excited state; the very basest treachery. Making fierce love beneath my very eyes, so careless of my feelings, or so convinced of my stupidity, as to take no pains to conceal their double-dealing!