Lady Etwynde's idea of Keith Athelstone has always been that he is selfish and inconsiderate, and that Lauraine is quite thrown away upon him; she feels convinced now of her own sagacity when she sees how foolish is his conduct. She herself takes no notice of Lady Jean, and when Keith excuses himself to her on the plea before mentioned, she feels disgusted and annoyed, and tells her husband she will have nothing more to say to the young man. She would have been civil to him for Lauraine's sake, but if he prefers Lady Jean, why to Lady Jean let him go.
"I knew he would never be constant," she says complainingly. "Really, men are too horrible."
"With one exception," smiles Colonel Carlisle, looking proudly at the bright, petulant face, that seems to have regained all its old sparkling witchery and youthfulness with the "old" happiness.
"Ah, Cyril, there is no one like you!" she answers.
"My darling," he says. "Every woman says that of the man she loves, and every man of the woman. I think you are hard upon poor Keith. Fancy, to love a woman with all one's heart and soul, and know she can be nothing to one. Ah heaven! how fatal a thing is marriage sometimes—how sure one ought to be of oneself before entering into a life-long union."
"We are sure!" she murmurs, softly nestling closer in his arms, as they stand side by side in the twilight shadows.
"Thank God, we are!" he says, with passionate earnestness. "But often and often I think, if it had not been for the sins and follies of the past—for the wrong and the suffering—our love would never have been as deep and intense a thing as it is. I shall never forget those years, and how hopelessly our lives seemed severed—with what reluctance I came home to England—how I dreaded to hear you were another's—and then——"
"After all I was your own," she whispers.
"And we are so happy," he resumes presently. "Are we not, my queen of æsthetes?"
She laughs a little tremulously. "Indeed, yes; but I fear, dearest, the queen has sadly neglected her subjects. Women's missions are all very well until men interfere with them. Then there is a lamentable failure of all the grand schemes and projects."