Part 33 (1/2)

The duchess had not spoken nor had she, on the other hand, with the fine courage of the true woer haste to discover what her husband had said of her, nor had she asked if he had spoken at all On the other hand, aided by an extrereater delicacy, she had waited, understanding that her guest, whose mettle and character she kneould not perht, however navely, disclose what he kneithout being conscious of it

But if Bulstrode gave hin that she had profited by indiscretions The impersonality of their conversations was indeed a relief to Bulstrode, and it made it possible for him to feel himself less a traitor at the Duke's hearth

But she talked very sweetly, too, of her children She had the second picture to the Duke's of the little boys, a picture like the one Bulstrode had seen at the castle, and showed it to him as the father had done

”Westboro' has the co her as they sat together in the ser rooms of the castle And at the end of a few moments Bulstrode quite blurted out: ”Why, in Heaven's name do you women make , dropped her bit of reat serious eyes, for all the world like a lady in a gift book Her face was eighteenth century and child-like

Bulstrode nodded ”Oh, yes, you've got so easily the upper hand, the very least of you, you know, over the best of us It's such an unfair supres, such a sense of the scale of the feelings, and you certainly make the very most of your power over us all Can't you--” and his eyes, half serious and half reproachful, seemed, as he looked at her, to question all the woh just quite simply toagain, and her eyes were upon it

Bulstrode waited for a little, following her stitches through the ht

”Can't you?” he softly repeated ”Isn't it, after all, a good sort of way of spending one's life, this ht so, you know,” she said ”It isn't taught us that the end and aim of our existence is to make a man happy”

Her companion didn't seem at all surprised

”And so you see,” she went on, ”those of us that do learn that after all therein what you say--those of us that learn, only find it out after a lot of hard experiences, and it is sometimes too late!”

She seemed to think his direct question called for a distinct answer, for she adive a great deal to try And you see, moreover,” she went on with her subject as she turned the corner of her square, ”you put it hen you said 'love enough' You see that's the whole thing, Mr Bulstrode, to love enough One can, of course, in that case, do nearly all there is to do, can't one?”

”Nearly all,” he had sreat deal nity and har the absence of the ive him very much co drive and severed--clove, as it were--a way through the frosty air and let him into the park The poorback,” he now put it Huddled down deep in his fur coat, its collar hunched round his ears, his face was as gloooods; doors thrown open into the fragrant and agreeably ware that the house had been lived in during his absence was not ungrateful He sniffed the odor of a faar, and before he had quite plumbed the melancholy of the place to its depths, Jimmy Bulstrode had sunned out of one of the inner roorasp of the friendly hand and the sound of the cheerful voice struck a chord in Westboro' that shook him

”I've been like a fiend possessed,” he said to Ji when they found themselves once more before the fire ”I've scarcely knohat I've been doing, or why; but I know one thing, and that is that I'm the o to Paris, then!”

”Yes,” said the Duke, ”and what I've found out there has driven norant of the variations of his friend's discovery, Bulstrode was pretty certain of one that had not been made

”You may, old chap,” he said smoothly, ”not have found out all the truth, you know”

Westboro' raised his hand ”Come,” he said, ”no palliations; you can't smooth over the facts Frances is not in Paris She has not been in Paris for several edy,” murmured his friend ”Paris is considered at times a place as well _not_ to be in”

But Bulstrode's remark did not distract his friend from his narrative

”She has not been in Paris since I saw her twelve n or trace of where she has gone There is no address, no way that I can find her Not that a discovery is not of course ultimately possible, but what, in the interval, if I should wish to write to her? What if I should need to see her? What if I should die?”

”Would you, in any of those cases, send for her?”

”I don't know,” the Duke ado to Paris this time to see the duchess?”

”Since you ask me frankly,” the Duke admitted, ”I don't think that I did”

”At all events,” the other said, ”you surely did not go to spy on her, Westboro'?”