which Bernard returned for a moment before bidding him to come in. Gordon came in and came up to him; then he held out his hand. Bernard took it with great satisfaction; his last feeling had been that he was very weary of this ridiculous quarrel, and it was an extreme relief to find it was over.
'It was very good of you to go to London,' said Gordon, looking at him with all the old serious honesty of his eyes.
'I have always tried to do what I could to oblige you,' Bernard answered, smiling.
'You must have cursed me over there,' Gordon went on.
'I did, a little. As you were cursing me here, it was permissible.'
'That 's over now,' said Gordon. 'I came to welcome you back. It seemed to me I could n't lay my head on my pillow without speaking to you.'
'I am glad to get back,' Bernard admitted, smiling still. 'I can't deny that. And I find you as I believed I should.' Then he added, seriously—'I knew Angela would keep us good friends.'
For a moment Gordon said nothing. Then, at last—
'Yes, for that purpose it did n't matter which of us should marry her. If it had been I,' he added, 'she would have made you accept it.'
'Ah, I don't know!' Bernard exclaimed.
'I am sure of it,' said Gordon earnestly—almost argumentatively. 'She 's an extraordinary woman.'
'Keeping you good friends with me—that 's a great thing. But it 's nothing to her keeping you good friends with your wife.'
Gordon looked at Bernard for an instant; then he fixed his eyes for some time on the fire.
'Yes, that is the greatest of all things. A man should value his wife. He should believe in her. He has taken her, and he should keep her—especially when there is a great deal of good in her. I was a great fool the other day,' he went on. 'I don't remember what I said. It was very weak.'
'It seemed to me feeble,' said Bernard. 'But it is quite within a man's rights to be a fool once in a while, and you had never abused of the license.'
'Well, I have done it for a lifetime—for a lifetime.' And Gordon took up his hat. He looked into the crown of it for a moment, and then he fixed his eyes on Bernard's again. 'But there is one thing I hope you won't mind my saying. I have come back to my old impression of Miss Vivian.'
'Your old impression?'
And Miss Vivian's accepted lover frowned a little.
'I mean that she 's not simple. She 's very strange.'
Bernard's frown cleared away in a sudden, almost eager smile.
'Say at once that you dislike her! That will do capitally.'
Gordon shook his head, and he, too, almost smiled a little.
'It 's not true. She 's very wonderful. And if I did dislike her, I should struggle with it. It would never do for me to dislike your wife!'
After he had gone, when the night was half over, Bernard, lying awake a while, gave a laugh in the still darkness, as this last sentence came back to him.
On the morrow he saw Blanche, for he went to see Gordon. The latter, at first, was not at home; but he had a quarter of an hour's talk with his wife, whose powers of conversation were apparently not in the smallest degree affected by anything that had occurred.
'I hope you enjoyed your visit to London,' she said. 'Did you go to buy Angela a set of diamonds in Bond Street? You did n't buy anything—you did n't go into a shop? Then pray what did you go for? Excuse my curiosity—it seems to me it 's rather flattering. I never know anything unless I am told. I have n't any powers of observation. I noticed you went—oh, yes, I observed that very much; and I thought it very strange, under the circumstances. Your most intimate friend arrived in Paris, and you choose the next day to make a little tour! I don't like to see you treat my husband so; he would never have done it to you. And if you did n't stay for Gordon, you might have staid for Angela. I never heard of anything so monstrous as a gentleman rushing away from the object of his affection, for no particular purpose that any one could discover, the day after she has accepted him. It was not the day after? Well, it was too soon, at any rate. Angela could n't in the least tell me what you had gone for; she said it was for a 'change.' That was a charming reason! But she was very much ashamed of you—and so was I; and at last we all sent Captain Lovelock after you to bring you back. You came back without him? Ah, so much the better; I suppose he is still looking for you, and, as he is n't very clever, that will occupy him for some time. We want to occupy him; we don't approve of his being so idle. However, for my own part, I am very glad you were away. I was a great deal at Mrs. Vivian's, and I should n't have felt nearly so much at liberty to go if I had known I should always find you there making love to Mademoiselle. It would n't have seemed to me discreet,—I know what you are going to say— that it 's the first time you ever heard of my wishing to avoid an indiscretion. It 's a taste I have taken up lately,— for the same reason you went to London, for a 'change.'' Here Blanche paused for an appreciable moment; and then she added—'Well, I must say, I have never seen anything so lovely as Mrs. Vivian's influence. I hope mamma won't be disappointed in it this time.'
When Bernard next saw the other two ladies, he said to them that he was surprised at the way in which clever women incurred moral responsibilities.
'We like them,' said Mrs. Vivian. 'We delight in them!'
'Well,' said Bernard, 'I would n't for the world have it on my conscience to have reconciled poor Gordon to Mrs. Blanche.'
'You are not to say a word against Blanche,' Angela declared. 'She 's a little miracle.'
'It will be all right, dear Bernard,' Mrs. Vivian added, with soft authority.
'I have taken a great fancy to her,' the younger lady went on.
