“She is very beautiful,” Rosamund said wistfully. “I wish she looked as though she liked me a little more. Is she very fond of you, Everard?”
“I think that I am rather in her bad books just at present,” Dominey confessed.
“I wonder! I am very observant, and I have seen her looking at you sometimes—Of course,” Rosamund went on, “as I am not really your wife and you are not really my husband, it is very stupid of me to feel jealous, isn't it, Everard?”
“Not a bit,” he answered. “If I am not your husband, I will not be anybody else's.”
“I love you to say that,” she admitted, with a little sigh, “but it seems wrong somewhere. Look how cross the Duchess looks! Some one must have played the wrong card.”
Rosamund's farewells were not easily made; Terniloff especially seemed reluctant to let her go. She excused herself gracefully, however, promising to sit up a little later the next evening. Dominey led the way upstairs, curiously gratified at her lingering progress. He took her to the door of her room and looked in. The nurse was sitting in an easy-chair, reading, and the maid was sewing in the background.
“Well, you look very comfortable here,” he declared cheerfully. “Pray do not move, nurse.”
Rosamund held his hands, as though reluctant to let him go. Then she drew his face down and kissed him.
“Yes,” she said a little plaintively, “it's very comfortable.—Everard?”
“Yes, dear?”