He was gently putting her in the wrong, and she felt uncomfortable and inclined to be remorseful. It was Lilian who had introduced him, and she herself had welcomed his visits. She answered deprecatingly:
“You have done nothing to offend me; it was on account of Lilian.”
The words might have been dictated by a feeling of jealousy; but the tone in which they were spoken precluded that idea. Colonel Richardson did not pretend to misunderstand her.
“I see,” he said, after a short pause. “But I think I have been rather hardly dealt with. I am forced by circumstances to remain in town when most of my friends have left it, and my wife, who is an invalid, is staying at Bournemouth. At the house of a common friend I make the acquaintance of a charming girl, whose relations, being in deep mourning, receive few visitors. She, finding me rather forlorn and friendless, offers to introduce me to her sister-in-law, an equally charming lady. I accept the offer eagerly—trespass perhaps too much upon the kindness of both ladies in coming whenever I have a chance to see them, and am rightly punished when——”
“Oh, no, no—forgive me!” cried poor Annie, overwhelmed with remorse at the apparent strength of the case against her. “I would not for the world have risked wounding you but for Lilian. You know how harsh the world is to such a beautiful young girl, and the pleasure we both took in your society has been already misconstrued in her case and has alarmed her friends. I have been very frank—perhaps too frank; but I think it was better, was it not?” she added pleadingly.
Of course he forgave her readily enough; and Annie, who felt that her husband would not be above listening at the keyhole, if he thought anything interesting was going on on the other side of the door, hastened to drop the confidential tone of their conversation.
Lilian being now offended without remedy, there was no reason to put any further check upon Colonel Richardson’s visits. He did not call so often as before; but Annie was most grateful for the breaks he afforded in her monotonous life.
They spent most of hot August in London, for the most hopeless of reasons that they could not afford to go away. Harry got a little money—she did not know how, and was afraid to ask; but even he saw that they must be careful with it. However, in the last days of the month they got an invitation to go for a voyage in a yacht, and the five weeks they spent in that way were the happiest Annie had ever known.
There was only one other lady on board, the wife of the owner, and a much older woman, so Annie was a little queen for the time and received unlimited attention from every man but her husband, who showed however to greater advantage in her eyes than he had ever done before, for he knew how to manage a yacht as well as he knew how to manage a horse, and was, in fact, the best sailor on board.
By the first of October they were again in London, Harry more sulky, his wife more reserved than ever. This could not last long.