"Snuff-taking among gentlemen is going quite out of fashion nowadays," she had said to herself. "But I've no doubt Gerald is fond of a cigar, and I'll not trouble about the curtains for once."
"You don't seem in the least curious about the news I've got to tell you," said Miss Bellamy at last.
"No, I'm very comfortable," said Gerald as he sipped his grog, "and more than that a man need not wish to be."
"And yet you have come all the way from the south of France to hear it?"
"And yet I have come all the way from France to hear it! But I daresay it will keep a little longer."
"Just your poor mother's careless way of looking at things," said Miss Bellamy with a smile and a shake of the head. "Just the same easy way that I remember so well." She gazed into the fire for a few moments, her mind far away among the things of the past.
"How long did you say that your father has been dead, Gerald?"
"A little more than two years."
"And no reconciliation ever took place between your uncle Jacob and him?"
"None whatever. My father knew he was in the wrong, and that only served to embitter him still more against my uncle. My uncle could neither forgive nor forget my father's cruel treatment of my mother. I believe that if a woman's heart was ever broken, hers was."