Charley obeyed her with alacrity!
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE NEXT DAY.
Miss Montague’s headache lasted till the afternoon of the next day, and she denied herself to every one but her maid, keeping quiet, as she said, to overcome the attack, but in reality plotting schemes for revenge on her successful rival.
Her seclusion ended, she appeared at luncheon, exquisitely gowned, and with a becoming pallor that witnessed her recent sufferings.
But all the ladies at the table were pale, for that matter, and they had pink eyelids, as if from recent weeping, while in their demeanor to Rosalind was mingled overweening pity and sympathetic tenderness for her illness.
So she condescended graciously:
“Don’t let’s talk of it any more. I’m better now.”
But it seemed to her, presently, that there was something else in the air, and, glancing at a vacant chair, she exclaimed:
“Why doesn’t Charley come to luncheon? Is he sick? Is that why all of you look so tearful?”
With that one of the girls choked back a sob and answered bitterly: