“I should be delighted,” he said, “only you know a landscape painter’s studio is not much to look at. Now Tadema’s——”
“Ah! but then Mrs. Elles is not blasée on the subject of studios as yet, are you, Mrs. Elles? She wants to see a little bit of everything now that she is here, don’t you? You remember our conversation in Newcastle? We must go about a little together and see the sights. I don’t mean the Tower and the Monument—you are of course far above these. You might ask us to tea in your studio,” she ended, turning, suddenly appealing, to Rivers.
“She wants to show off her intimacy with him,” Mrs. Elles thought bitterly.
“I will,” said Rivers gravely. “You must write and name your own day. It will have to be when I come back from Paris.”
“Oh, are you going to Paris?” Egidia exclaimed, obviously surprised and completely uninstructed in his movements.
“I think I shall have to, on business; but I will let you know when I come back, and I will try to get a few interesting people to meet you—and your friend!”
Mrs. Elles had to make what she could out of the slight hesitation. He smiled, forcedly—she was sure it was forcedly.
Egidia’s face was wreathed in kindly natural smiles as he bade good-bye—so was hers. It was pathetic. Mrs. Elles, with her superior knowledge of “fearful consequences, yet hanging in the stars,” felt as if they were all dancing on a grave—treading a volcano. She knew well enough that she would never go to tea with him, never touch his hand again perhaps, as she gave hers, and dreamt of the accustomed thrill of pleasure that the mere contact used to give her. It did not now. Was it that she was too nervous, too frightened to be receptive, or was it that his magnetism had ceased to flow for her, as a consequence of his indifference?
He raised the heavy portière, and the light seemed to go out of two women’s lives as it fell to behind him.
“Well,” said Egidia, complacently, “that will be the first tea party my cousin has ever given in his studio in his life, to my knowledge! I do hope it will come off, for I want you two to be great friends. You will—you are the veritable antithesis of each other.”