She gave a little shudder.
“Oh, don’t talk of it,” she said. “It is bad enough without thinking of it beforehand.”
“Poor little woman! Almost a pity you are not gouty too. Then we should both look forward to it.”
She sat down on one of the shrubbery seats, and drew aside her skirts, making room for him to sit beside her.
“Yes, but as I am not gouty, Wilfred,” she said. “It is no use wishing I was. And I do hate Harrogate so. I wonder——”
She gave a little sigh and put her arm within his.
“Well, what’s the little woman wondering now?” he asked.
“I hardly like to tell you. You are always so kind to me that I don’t know why I am afraid. Wilfred, would you think it dreadful of me, if I suggested not going with you this year? I’m sure it makes me ill to be there. You will have Elsie; you will play chess as usual with her all evening. You see all morning you are at your baths, and you usually are out bicycling all afternoon with her. I don’t think you know how I hate it.”
She had begun in her shy, tentative manner. But her voice grew more cold and decided. She put forward her arguments like a woman who has thought it all carefully over, as indeed she had.
“But what will you do with yourself, my dear?” he said. “It seems a funny plan. You can’t stop here alone.”