Part 31 (2/2)
”And nothing,” she said, ”must ood you are, and how you do all sorts of Quixotic funny things, but in this case please--please----”
”Mind my own business?” he nodded ”I will, duchess, I will”
She looked at him steadily a moment and seemed satisfied, for she relaxed the tensity of her manner, which was the first Americanism she had displayed, and in her pretty soft drawl asked him, with less perfunctory interest than her words implied: ”You are at Westboro'?”
”Yes, since the twenty-fifth”
”And you're staying on?”
”I seem to be more or less of a fixture--until the holidays, I expect”
”Lucky you,” she breathed, and at his expression of candid surprise she half laughed ”Oh, I htful?”
He was able to say honestly: ”Quite the most beautiful house I have ever seen”
”Yes, I think so too,” she nodded ”It's not so important as many others but it's more perfect, more like a home”
Bulstrode sat back in his chair and tried to et him
Between the fire and the shadoanted to watch her face from which he no that the beauty he remembered had not faded but had been transfor girl, fully blown at eighteen, with the dazzling charer existed in the duchess of Westboro' She had refined veryof the American princess had been replaced by the colder, lish duchess
She was evidently a very proud woman, the arch of her brows said so, and the line of her lips All her lines were sharper and finer Her color, and he could not, as he studied her, quite regret it; her color was quite gone Her pallor made her more delicate, and her eyes--it was in thee of all; they were now fixed upon hi ray
”What rooiven you?” she asked after a moment
Then--”Wait,” she co, the Henry IV
rooave those to theextremely homelike about the like those winter roses in that court?
Did any bloo the terrace balustrade--or possibly you don't care for flowers? Of course you wouldn't as a girl does”
A _girl_--with that face and those eyes? Why, sheback ten years Bulstrode drew a breath
”I know the roses you ardener takes such pride in theathered; they fall as they hang The gardener, it so happened, toldat hi further, and after a moment more Bulstrode replied to another question
”As it happens I don't occupy the Henry IV rooms I have mine quite on the other side of the castle Don't they call theht her breath a little, but she was in splendid training with all her years of English life behind her Her face, nevertheless, showed hoell she knew those rooms, without the added note in her voice as she said:
”Oh, those West Rooms--you have those”
And in the quiet that fell as her eyes sought the fire, he quite kne her thoughts travelled down the hall to the open nursery doors with their waiting gates Whatever were her reasons for being here, Bulstrode saw that he had surprised her in a moment of sadness, and that his visit in spite of his indiscretion, was not wholly unwelco upon some one connected with her own life, she had been co like sentiment was short Even as he looked at her she hardened
”You have naturally not asked h now, ”and ive By to-one I arden, I am quite unknown to the people about
If any one in Westboro' learns that I aain It is discourteous to say so--to ask it”
He had risen from his chair