“You must go and call on Arthur to-morrow, and you will soon perceive by his manner whether he is averse to coming here; but mind you are very careful not to let him see that you suspect anything; I am quite sure he would be most sensitive on such a point,” observed Alice, in a tone in which you would caution a schoolboy against playing with gunpowder.
“Keep your advice for you own benefit, most sententious Alice, seeing that you are the suspecting party, and that such an idea would never have occurred to my unassisted reason,” was Harry’s rejoinder; and the dinner-bell at that moment ringing, the conversation ceased.
The next day, however, Arthur put an end to the controversy by making his appearance in Park Lane soon after luncheon. Although no one alluded to the circumstance, it was the first time he had set his foot in Mr. Crane’s house, or indeed seen Kate since her marriage. He looked pale and over-worked, and there was a restless excitement in his manner, which Alice’s quick eye at once discovered. Beyond this, however, there was nothing which tended in the slightest degree to confirm her in her suspicions. He apologised quietly and naturally to Kate for not having called oftener, adducing business as a good and sufficient reason for his remissness; then, turning to Alice, he informed her that she could not have chosen a more unfortunate time for her visit to London, at least, as far as he was concerned, as he was obliged to start the next morning for Naples, being sent out by the Foreign-Office on an affair of some importance, which, if he could bring the matter to a successful issue, might tend to his ultimate advancement. Kate, on the contrary, appeared nervous and ill at ease, and probably feeling that for once she could not rely on her self-command, took an early opportunity of quitting the room, leaving the brother and sister tête-à-tête.
“Alice, you are changed,” exclaimed Arthur, as the door closed on her whom he had once so deeply loved, towards whom he now felt as we can only feel towards those whom we have admitted into the inmost recesses of the heart, and who have availed themselves of the privilege to profane and make desolate the sanctuary, “you were a girl, you have become a woman; has matrimony produced the alteration?”
“Yes, I suppose so,” was the rejoinder. “You know one can’t remain a child always; the realities of life are sure to find one out sooner or later, and I was a mere baby in the ways of the world when I married.”
There was a spice of regret in the tone of this remark, which did not escape Arthur’s quick ear and keen intelligence, and he hastened to reply—
“You mean more than you say; why, surely, Alice, with such a husband you must be perfectly happy; it is impossible that it can be otherwise.”
As he spoke, he fixed his dark eyes questioningly upon her. Unable fairly to meet his gaze, Alice turned away her head, as she replied, with an effort at careless gaiety—
“Don’t alarm yourself, most romantic of barristers; there is no Bluebeard’s closet at Coverdale, nor does Harry turn into a skeleton, or anything else but his bed, at twelve o’clock at night. He is just the thoroughly good fellow (that is the term you men delight in) he always was, and devoted to——
“His wife!” interrupted Arthur.