'I suppose so. They are handsome. I am always thankful they are not plain.'
'You'll miss Anna, or rather, perhaps, they will.'
'Anna cannot be spared yet. I think Mr. Borlase a very selfish and inconsiderate man, but I was really too vexed to tell him so. I told Anna, however.'
'Does Mr. Severn say she cannot be spared?'
'John? You know what John is—crazy for people to be happy, as he calls it. He said he should have her when he wanted her. It is I who have the common sense. I told him I could not spare her until Antoinette was old enough to take her place; and I told Anna Mr. Borlase might die and leave her a widow without a farthing. I do think, when John has given her a home all these years, she ought to make us the first consideration. But every one seems very hard to convince.'
She got up as she spoke and moved to the piano. While turning over some music she said in a low voice of bell-like clearness, 'Miss Marlowe was here the other day telling us about her visit to the Pitons at Rocozanne. I thought from her manner you had not told her then about me. Have you since?'
Mrs. Hennifer started to her feet, throwing the book she held on to the table with a vigour that startled even Mrs. Severn. It made her look round hastily.
'Clothilde,' she said, 'how can you torture me? This is torture. Don't you know I love Cynthia Marlowe with my whole heart—a thousand times more than ever I loved you with a foolish creature's adoration of your mere superficial beauty? It pierces me to the quick to think she should ever have a moment's pain of mind. Don't you think that if the Admiral knew her future husband had been jilted by you, he might not tolerate the match? And her heart might break with the misery of it all; the Admiral may live twenty years! And how am I to tell her—and yet how am I to let it go untold?' Her voice sank, and she added this more to herself than aloud.
'Oh! she must know,' said Mrs. Severn in a matter-of-fact tone.