She stopped, and looked away from my eyes. I saw the colour spreading in a slow wave over her cheeks; it was like those tints of early dawn that are so ravishing to the souls of poets. “In four or five months from now—-” And she stopped again.
I put my big hand gently over her small one. “I have three children of my own,” I said.
“So,” she went on, “it won’t seem so unreasonable. Some people know, and the rest will guess, and there won’t be any talk—I mean, such as there would be if it was rumoured that Mrs. Douglas van Tuiver had got interested in Socialism, and refused to spend her husband’s money.”
“I understand,” I replied. “It’s quite the most sensible thing, and I’m glad you’ve found a way out. I shall miss you, of course, but we can write each other long letters. Where are you going?”
“I’m not absolutely sure. Douglas suggests a cruise in the West Indies, but I think I should rather be settled in one place. He has a lovely house in the mountains of North Carolina, and wants me to go there; but it’s a show-place, with rich homes all round, and I know I’d soon be in a social whirl. I thought of the camp in the Adirondacks. It would be glorious to see the real woods in winter; but I lose my nerve when I think of the cold—I was brought up in a warm place.”
“A ‘camp’ sounds rather primitive for one in your condition,” I suggested.
“That’s because you haven’t been there. In reality it’s a big house, with twenty-five rooms, and steam-heat and electric lights, and half a dozen men to take care of it when it’s empty—as it has been for several years.”
I smiled—for I could read her thought. “Are you going to be unhappy because you can’t occupy all your husband’s homes?”
“There’s one other I prefer,” she continued, unwilling to be made to smile. “They call it a ‘fishing lodge,’ and it’s down in the Florida Keys. They’re putting a railroad through there, but meantime you can only get to it by a launch. From the pictures, it’s the most heavenly spot imaginable. Fancy running about those wonderful green waters in a motor-boat!”
“It sounds quite alluring,” I replied. “But isn’t it remote for you?”