"Indeed! Then we must put up with his loss. But Blanche Going—where is she?"
"Probably in Jamaica, for all I know, or care," unaimiably.
"What an answer! Poor Blanche! if she could only hear you. You should remember, 'Duke, that flippancy, though excusable in a woman, is simply brutal in a man. Solitude disagrees with you; you grow downright rude."
"If I was rude, I apologize," returns he, carelessly. Then, having whistled straight through his favorite air most successfully, and wound up with an elaborate flourish, he walks through the open window on to the balcony outside.
"Very good; ask them all as soon as you like," He says, over his shoulder with a languid nod; "and go for a stroll the day is too fine to spend indoors."
----
"I was going to beg an invitation if I did not receive one," says Harriet, a week later, as she returns my kiss of welcome. "I was growing very uneasy about you. But," tapping my cheek, "I might have spared myself any worry on the subject of your health, as you are looking provokingly well."
Bebe declares I have caused them all more trouble than I am worth, whereupon I take her in custody and march her upstairs and run her into her bedroom.
Just before dinner Chandos arrives, having been driven over from a country-house some miles distant, where he has been staying.
Bebe greets him with a light laugh that has nothing in it of nervousness or suppressed pleasure. It is purely indifferent. For the moment I feel puzzled and disappointed.