CHAPTER XXVIII.
There was something exasperating in the renewal of the position exactly as it had been before dinner. To make up for having eaten nothing, Reanda drank two cups of coffee in silence.
"You might at least speak to me," observed Gloria, as he set down the second cup. "One would almost think that we had quarrelled!"
The hard laugh that followed the words jarred upon him more painfully than anything that had gone before. He laughed, too, after a moment's silence, half hysterically.
"Yes," he said; "one might almost think that we had quarrelled!" And he laughed again.
"The idea seems to amuse you," said Gloria, coldly.
"As it does you," he answered. "We both laughed. Indeed, it is very amusing."
"Donna Francesca has sent you home in a good humour. That is rare. I suppose I ought to be grateful."
"Yes. I am in a fine humour. It seems to me that we both are." He bit his cigar, and blew out short puffs.