"Not a word. He seemed tired of the dinner party. He yawned."
"And I'm sure that you yawned in sympathy. When a man so far forgets himself as to yawn in the presence of a woman, she never fails to respond with one of more ample circumference. When a woman so far remembers herself as to yawn in the presence of a man, he tries to say something witty."
"Yes, when the woman is not his wife. If she is his wife, he asks her if she doesn't think it's about time she was in bed."
"I dare say you're right; you have observed men--and women, for that matter--much more closely than I have had time to do. It's very awkward that he isn't here. I must bring him back at once."
She felt a little movement at her heart; but she only said:
"I wouldn't do that, if I were you. Why shouldn't he be allowed to enjoy his holiday in peace?"
"It's a matter of business; the mine, I told you."
"What's wrong with the mine that could be set right by his coming back at once? Are you not making enough out of it?"
"We're making quite as much as is good for us out of it. But if we can get a hundred and fifty thousand pounds for a few yards of our claim further east, without damaging the prospects of the mine itself, I don't think we should refuse it--at any rate, I don't think that we should refuse to consider the offer."
"What is a hundred and fifty thousand pounds?" said she.
"I wonder why you dressed yourself as you did last night?" said he.
The suddenness of the words did not cause her to quail as the guilty wife quails--yes, under a properly managed lime-light. She did not even color. But then, of course, she was not a guilty wife.
She lay back on her chair and laughed.
He watched her--not eagerly, but pleasantly, admiringly.
"My dear Stephen, if you could understand why I dressed myself that way you would be able to give me a valuable hint as to where the connection lies between your mine and my toilet--I need such a hint, now, I can assure you."
She was sitting up now looking at him with lovely laughing eyes.
(After all, she was no guilty wife.)
"What, you can't see the connection?" he said slowly. "You can sew over your dress about fifty thousand pounds' worth of diamonds, and yet you don't see the connection between the wearing of that dress and the development of a gold mine by your husband?"
"I think I see it now--something of a connection. But I don't want any more diamonds; I don't care if you take all that are sewed about the dress and throw them into the river. That's how I feel this morning."
"I heard some time ago of a woman who had something of your mood upon her one day. She had some excellent diamonds, and in one of her moods, she flung them into the river. She was a wife and she had a lover who disappointed her. The story reads very smoothly in verse."
She laughed.
"I have no lover," she said--was it mournfully? "I have a husband, it is true; but he is not exactly of the type of King Arthur--nor Sir Galahad, for that matter. I hope you found Paris as enjoyable as ever?"
"Quite. I never saw at Paris a more enrapturing toilet than yours of last night. You are, I know, the handsomest woman of my acquaintance, and you looked handsomer than I had ever before seen you in that costume. I wonder why you put it on."
"Didn't someone--was it Phyllis?--suggest that it was an act of inspiration; that I had a secret, mysterious prompting to put it on to achieve the object which--well, which I did achieve."
"Object? What object?"
"To make my husband fall in love with me again."
"Ah! In love there is no again. I wonder where a telegram would find Herbert."
"Don't worry yourself about him. Let him enjoy his holiday."
"Do you fancy he is enjoying himself with Earlscourt and his boon companions? They'll be playing poker from morning till night--certainly from night till morning."
"Why should he go on the cruise if he was not certain to enjoy himself?"
"Ah, that question is too much for me. Think over it yourself and let me know if you come to a solution, my dear."
