“Oh, Annie, she wouldn’t have you back in her schoolroom now!”
“No, indeed she would not!” answered Annie promptly.
When she rose to leave the gentlemen, there was a little anxiety in her manner as she glanced toward her husband. He was sitting with his eyes fixed doggedly upon his plate, his face was already rather flushed, and his hand was round the stem of a glass of Burgundy. She knew how little weight a word from her was likely to have now; but it was her duty to try, and she did try. As she passed him, she put out her left hand, with its one ring—her wedding-ring, which decorum now forced her to wear—lightly on his shoulder, and, as he gave no sign, she bent down and slipped the slim white fingers gently up to his neck. He smelled the faint perfume of the azalea on her breast, heard her quickened breathing as he still hesitated.
“Do you remember?” she whispered softly.
He raised his eyes, sullenly still, to the little, pleading face. She was irresistible at that moment, with her smiling lips and her sparkling eyes, her head a little on one side in entreaty. There came a flash from his eyes; her womanly fascination had won from him what his promise would have failed to get. He got up, and, leaning on her slight shoulder, let her lead him out of the room.
Annie was so much pleased with this unexpected little triumph that her bright humor infected him now that he was alone with her; and, as she dragged the easiest chair before the drawing-room fire for him, she chattered on so that he had no time or inclination for the complaints he was going to make against his brother George’s brutal indifference to his illness. He was much annoyed when, in a very short time, they heard the dining-room door open and the voices of the other three in the hall.
“Hang them all! They make so much noise. Annie, I think I’ll go to bed; and I want you to come and read to me.”
But George had heard the last words as he came in.
“No, no, Harry! Go to bed by all means, if you will; but you mustn’t make a victim of Annie. You have had my Lady Sunbeam all to yourself for weeks; you must let her shed a few rays on the rest of us now.”
Before Harry could make an angry reply, Annie broke in: