“Ah! I suppose you’ll wire her not to come, like a good little girl.”
“No; I’ll do nothing of the kind; but she won’t come.”
Her tone caused him to look at her quickly; but she met his gaze quietly and asked:
“How did you get on with Miss Morley after I so considerately left you alone this morning? This has really been a very busy day, hasn’t it?”
Wayne’s heart sank at the mention of Jean. It was in this room that very morning that heaven had seemed so near. Mrs. Craighill had followed her inquiry with a glance to see why he ignored her question. He had turned forward the table by which Jean had stood when he took her hand and held it to his face. He did not answer her question but stared dully into the fire where the events of the day mocked him in kinetoscopic flashes. Mrs. Craighill raised herself to her knees and brought her face close to his.
“Are you in love with her, Wayne?”
“What if I am?” he snapped, stirring uneasily and drawing slightly away from her.
“I’d be sorry if you were in love with anyone, I think; but you musn’t let her hurt you. I shouldn’t like that. She is too handsome for a poor girl; I suppose I was too,” she concluded with a sigh.
She found and caressed his hand. The faint, elusive perfume of her silken robe, the light touch of her hand, the fine precision of her profile, the pretty red lips and heavy-lidded, smiling eyes combined to quicken his heartbeats. She was here, quite within his reach, a wounded bird, with bruised wings, asking shelter. The revenge he had carried in his heart since the night he read her letter announcing her engagement to marry his father was attainable—he knew it by all the manifold testimonies of his senses, the response of his nature to hers. She was, as Tom Walsh had said, fragile, like glass; and he was a veritable weathercock, the wind’s plaything. His hand closed over hers, she drew nearer and her head lay on his breast, and he stroked her fair, bright hair.
“It’s good to be happy. I wish I belonged to you. If things only went right in this world I should, and we should have dear times together.”