“I think they often look much brighter in the evening,” said Ronald, thinking of the night before.
“I am sure something disagreeable has happened to you to-day, Mr. Surbiton,” said Sybil, looking at him. Ronald looked into her eyes as though to see if there were any sympathy there.
“Yes, something disagreeable has happened to me,” he answered slowly. “Something very disagreeable and painful.”
“I am sorry,” said Sybil simply. But her voice sounded very kind and comforting.
“That is why I say that love stories always end badly in real life,” said Ronald. “But I suppose I ought not to complain.” It was not until he had thought over this speech, some minutes later, that he realized that in a few words he had told Sybil the main part of his troubles. He never guessed that she was so far in Joe’s confidence as to have heard the whole story before. But Sybil was silent and thoughtful.
“Love is such an uncertain thing,” she began, after a pause; and it chanced that at that very moment Joe opened the door and entered the room. She caught the sentence.
“So you are instructing my cousin,” she said to Sybil, laughing. “I approve of the way you spend your time, my children!” No one would have believed that, twenty minutes earlier, Joe had been in tears. She was as fresh and as gay as ever, and Ronald said to himself that she most certainly had no heart, but that Sybil had a great deal,–he was sure of it from the tone of her voice.
“What is the news about the election, Sybil?” she asked. “Of course you know all about it at the Wyndhams’.”
“My dear, the family politics are in a state of confusion that is simply too delightful,” said Sybil.
“You know it is said that Ira C. Calvin has refused to be a candidate, and the Republicans mean to put in Mr. Jobbins in his place, who is such a popular man, and so good and benevolent-quite a philanthropist.”