“What is it? A snake? a lizard?” he asked drowsily.
“Neither—nothing of that sort. Why will y’always be thinking of such horrid things? No, the General bid me tell you he has asked to have Bayard sent back to help him with the treaty, and he expects him here in no time.”
The news was so unexpected that it woke Richard effectually. “I wonder whether he is wise,” he said, without any of the enthusiasm Eveleen had looked for.
“And is that all you have to say? I thought you’d be jumping out of bed and dancing on your head for joy!”
“Really, my dear! Have you ever known me do——”
“No, never! never anything of the sort!” Eveleen was sitting up in bed, and her voice floated over to him in a bitter wail. “Always and always y’are the most disappointing creature ever I saw in my life!”
“I am sorry. If you had let me know beforehand——”
“And then where would be the surprise—the delightful surprise?—and y’are not a bit delighted, or surprised either. And I saving it up since the moment he told me——”
“Perhaps you had better have told me at once, my dear. You are rather like the General——”
“Like the General!” burst forth Eveleen. “If you think it polite to tell your poor unfortunate wife she’s like an ancient old man with a nose as big as the Hill of Howth and a beard like a billy-goat! You told me before I was as ugly as sin, but I thought you maybe didn’t mean it—but now you’ve said it again——” a sob.