"I mean in asserting his own will. But he is changed in other ways. It seems to me that he has never been quite the same man since that night in the chapel. He has been more thoughtful; and all the old vacillation is gone."
The countess-dowager could not understand at all; neither did she believe; and she only stared at Maude.
"His not coming down with me is a proof that he exercises his own will now. I wished him to come very much, and he knew it; but you see he has not done so."
"And what do you say is keeping him?" repeated the countess-dowager.
"Business—"
"Ah," interrupted the dowager, before Maude could finish, "that's the general excuse. Always suspect it, my dear."
"Suspect what?" asked Maude.
"When a man says that, and gets his wife out of the way with it, rely upon it he is pursuing some nice little interests of his own."
Lady Hartledon understood the implication; she felt nettled, and a flush rose to her face. In her husband's loyalty (always excepting his feeling towards Miss Ashton) she rested fully assured.
"You did not allow me to finish," was the cold rejoinder. "Business is keeping him in town, for one thing; for another, I think he cannot get over his dislike to face the Ashtons."