“You can’t truthfully say that,” he rejoined quietly, “while you have had the supreme good fortune to enlist the affection of so clever and charming a wife.”
The gloom disappeared from Challis’s countenance as the shadow of a cloud at that moment flitted from the surface of the lake. He thrust forth his hand, and there being no onlookers, Stranleigh grasped it.
“Shake!” cried Challis. “I’ll never say ‘ill-luck’ again! I wish she had come with us.”
“So do I,” agreed Stranleigh.
“I’d like her to have heard you talk.”
“Oh, not for that reason. I’d like her to enjoy this scenery.”
“Yes, and the deuce of it is, she practically owns the scene. Look at that house across the lake.”
“A mansion, I should call it.”
“A mansion it is. That’s where my wife came from. Think of my selfishness in taking her from such a home to wretched rooms in a cottage, and abject poverty.”
“I prefer not to think of your selfishness, but rather of her nobility in going. It revives in a cynical man like myself his former belief in the genuine goodness of the world.”