Love-making is always so infinitely entertaining to the lovers, with every burning word a fresh delight; and yet how tiresome, flat, trite, stale, and unprofitable to the disinterested yet enforced listener.
Carleigh got back to Cross Saddle Hall in ample time to dress for dinner, and found no less than a dozen pairs of pumps of varying sizes spread out on his floor for inspection and selection.
After dining he redressed and went up to town by a late train. The next day he returned his borrowed attire, and then he went down to Bellingdown once more for a long and important conference with his aunt.
It took place in Lady Bellingdown's boudoir, and this is the way he began it: "Rosamond and I are to be married within a week, and we'd like to be married here."
Lady Bellingdown's breath was quite taken away. She couldn't say a thing. So her nephew proceeded: "You see, we thought first of going to the registrar, saying nothing to any one, and just slipping off to some foreign paradise all by ourselves.
"But Rosamond says she never expects to be married but once, and that as she has her wedding-gown all ready and waiting she might as well wear it and show it."
"But I thought--" began his kinswoman, and got no farther.
"You thought I was in love with Mrs. Darling," he interrupted. "So I--No, I wasn't. I was fascinated, infatuated. But I--Of course you heard about the fire at Carfen?"
"We heard she was horribly burned. Do tell me the particulars."
"They say she's disfigured," he explained. "Her face is all swathed now."
"That will rob her of her power. And she was so beautiful."
"Yes, she was beautiful," agreed Carleigh. "And she did have power. She could make a man forget his eternal soul."
"Nina was wonderful at making men forget," said his Aunt Kitty. "She made you forget, didn't she?"
"For a little while. Then, by purest chance, I saw Rosamond again, and--well, I knew that she was the only woman I could ever really care for as one's wife should be cared for. She is an angel."
"Ah, her mother. We are going to keep clear of Mrs. Veynol."
"Certainly. We must, you see. I don't know what it is, but she rouses all the devil there is in me. And then--" He paused.
"Was that how she separated you before? I never exactly knew."