“You have come a little sooner than we expected,” said Gordon; “but you are all the more welcome.”
“It was rather a risk,” Blanche observed. “One should be notified, when one wishes to make a good impression.”
“Ah, my dear lady,” said Bernard, “you made your impression--as far as I am concerned--a long time ago, and I doubt whether it would have gained anything to-day by your having prepared an effect.”
They were standing before the fire-place, on the great hearth-rug, and Blanche, while she listened to this speech, was feeling, with uplifted arm, for a curl that had strayed from her chignon.
“She prepares her effects very quickly,” said Gordon, laughing gently. “They follow each other very fast!”
Blanche kept her hand behind her head, which was bent slightly forward; her bare arm emerged from her hanging sleeve, and, with her eyes glancing upward from under her lowered brows, she smiled at her two spectators. Her husband laid his hand on Bernard’s arm.
“Is n’t she pretty?” he cried; and he spoke with a sort of tender delight in being sure at least of this point.
“Tremendously pretty!” said Bernard. “I told her so half an hour before you came in.”
“Ah, it was time I should arrive!” Gordon exclaimed.
Blanche was manifestly not in the least discomposed by this frank discussion of her charms, for the air of distinguished esteem adopted by both of her companions diminished the crudity of their remarks. But she gave a little pout of irritated modesty--it was more becoming than anything she had done yet--and declared that if they wished to talk her over, they were very welcome; but she should prefer their waiting till she got out of the room. So she left them, reminding Bernard that he was to send for his luggage and remain, and promising to give immediate orders for the preparation of his apartment. Bernard opened the door for her to pass out; she gave him a charming nod as he stood there, and he turned back to Gordon with the reflection of her smile in his face. Gordon was watching him; Gordon was dying to know what he thought of her. It was a curious mania of Gordon’s, this wanting to know what one thought of the women he loved; but Bernard just now felt abundantly able to humor it. He was so pleased at seeing him tightly married.