"Quite well," answered Mr. St. John, "and as happy in my marriage as a child. Our ostensible home, after all, is to be Alnwick; but I dare say we shall spend with him eight months out of every year at Castle Wafer."
"And my ill-fated half-sister, Mrs. Carleton St. John?" asked Rose, a deep shade of sadness clouding her radiant face. "Is there no hope of her restoration?"
"I fear none," he replied.
"I wonder sometimes whether they are quite kind to her in that private asylum?"
"There's no doubt they are. Mr. Pym sees her sometimes; your mamma often. But that of course you know better than I do."
"I wanted mamma to take me to see her before I left England for good; but she would not."
"And so much the better," said Mr. St. John. "It could not be well for you, Madame de la Chasse."
"'Madame de la Chasse!'" she echoed. "Well, it sounds curious to hear you call me so. Ah! how strange! that he should have married me; and you--Poor Adeline! Does your wife know about her?" suddenly questioned Rose, in her careless way.
"Yes," spoke up Georgina.
"Old loves go for nothing when we come to be married. We laugh at the past then, and think what love-sick silly children we were. I have settled down into the most sober wife living."