“Don’t you think we had better move to San Francisco in the Spring?”
“Perhaps we had. I am getting really anxious to 189 mingle once more in society. You know I have a great many acquaintances there,” said Irene.
“That is what I was thinking, and I thought, perhaps, you would begin to feel the need of society, since you were once such a society woman.”
“Oh, I have been very happy since I left New York, and do not care very much about going away, but, of course, one needs a change.”
“Certainly, my love, and you are too beautiful to be caged up like a bird.”
Irene smiled and drew her chair close to his side.
“I don’t want my wife’s beauty entirely hidden from the world. I want others to know what a lovely wife I possess. You see, Scott was selfish, and he wanted to keep you right under his eye, but I want you to be happy. By the way, do you ever think of that fellow any more?”
“Oh, dear, no, not any more than I can help. To be sure, I sometimes wonder what he is about, and if he is married again, as I am, but I don’t suppose he is, for he always had such a very old-fashioned idea of right and wrong.”
“He never knew what love was, not such love as mine; he never can know, he is not capable. But tell me truly, darling, do you never wish yourself back with him?”
Irene tried to think whether she really did, or ever had wished herself back in Scott Wilmer’s home. She tried to find if there was any reasons why she should say she wished herself back, but she looked up at the man beside her, and the charm of the serpent completely 190 surrounded her. How very handsome he looked, sitting there in his amber-colored dressing gown, holding a highly scented cigar between the tips of his white fingers. Really he was the handsomest man she had ever seen.