“I have not been here since you—how long is it since you were away?” said Mrs. Herbert. “Did you enjoy yourself? What were you doing? Skating?”
“It seems so long ago,” said Launa. “To-day has been so warm. Who could believe we have ever skated?”
“Yes, who?” inquired Mrs. Herbert. “The ice has gone, and the skate-marks are melted; there is no track on the water.”
“I hear Herbert has gone to Cairo,” said Mr. Wainbridge.
“Has he?” asked Launa. “How horrible for you.”
It is a wife’s duty to feel horribly something at her husband’s departure for Egypt or Hong-Kong, and Launa expressed the proper sympathy in her voice.
“He did not tell you?” asked Mrs. Herbert.
“He did,” said Mrs. Herbert, with some excitement.
There was silence. Mr. Wainbridge glanced at Launa. His look infuriated Mrs. Herbert, whose anger threatened to become quite beyond her power of control.
“I came to-day, Launa, to tell you that I will no longer know you. You have poisoned my husband’s mind against me, and a girl who goes to the country and stays alone there with a man, under his name, as his—well, I leave the name to you.”
Mr. Wainbridge jumped up. Launa grew scarlet—bright, flaming red, up, up, into her hair. Mrs. Herbert was mad with anger; she wanted a whip, to hear it lashed, to make a noise with it, and hurt somebody. She clenched her hands violently.
“Miss Archer has just promised to be my wife,” said Mr. Wainbridge, “and she would prefer you left us. As for me, I hope you will never come into her house again; you certainly never shall enter mine.”
“Bah!” said Mrs. Herbert. “Virtue is not always triumphant. You made him love you—you took him from me!”
“Open the door for Mrs. Herbert,” said Mr. Wainbridge to the maid.
“Your announcement is rather late. You may as well marry her—now.”
“What does she mean?” asked Launa, in a bewildered way. She had risen and stood in front of Mr. Wainbridge, her eyes on his face. “Do they say things about me? Do they?”
He did not answer her question. He had nothing to say.
Launa heard a step and turned round quickly to see if Mrs. Herbert were returning.
“Paul! Paul!” she cried. There was joy in her voice which Mr. Wainbridge had never heard in it before. “Oh, Paul!” She moved quickly towards him and gave him her hand. “I am so glad, so glad. When did you come? Why did you not come long ago?”