Kattle. You have been speaking to my husband."
Anne bowed; she did not lose her presence of mind at _this_ encounter. A
few civil words of reply given with courteous dignity, and she moved away
with a bright flush on her cheek, towards Dr. and Mrs. Ashton, who were
standing arm-in-arm enraptured before a remote picture, cognizant of
nothing else.
"How thin she looks!" exclaimed Maude, as she rejoined her husband, and
took his arm.
"Who looks thin?"
"Miss Ashton. I wonder she did not fling your hand away, instead of
putting her own into it!"
"Do you wish to see the Trianon? We shall be late."
"Yes, I do wish to see it. But you need not speak in that tone: it was
not my fault that we met her."
He answered never a syllable. His lips were compressed to pain, and his
face was hectic; but he would not be drawn into reproaching his wife by
so much as a word, for the sort of taste she was displaying. The manner
in which he had treated Miss Ashton and her family was ever in his mind,
more or less, in all its bitter, humiliating disgrace. The worst part of
it to Val was, that there could be no reparation.
The following day Lord Hartledon and his wife took their departure from
Paris; and if anything could have imparted especial gratification on his
arriving in London at the hired house, it was to find that his wife's
mother was not in it. Val had come home against his will; he had not
wished to be in London that season; rather would he have buried himself
and his haunting sense of shame on the tolerant Continent; and he
certainly had not wished his wife to make her debut in a small hired
house.
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