"For how long?"
"Always, I think."
"Did it seem—absurd, in any way?"
"Not at all. I was hoping for it, until the wind changed. And," she added, with her face turned away, "Colonel Kent was, too."
Some of the colour ebbed slowly back into the white, stricken face. "That makes me feel," Rose breathed, "as if I hadn't been quite so foolish as I've been thinking I was."
"Then keep the high heart, dear, for they mustn't suspect."
"No," cried Rose sharply, "oh, no! Anything but that!"
"It's hard to wear gloves when you don't want to," replied Madame, with seeming irrelevance, "but it's easier when there are others. The Colonel will need them, too—this is going to be hard on him."
"Does-he—know?" whispered Rose, fearfully.
"No," answered Madame, laughing outright, "indeed he doesn't. Did you ever know of a man discovering anything that wasn't right under his nose?"