He was beginning to take walks with me in the
garden, and rides in an open carriage. He was getting better every day;
and oh, sir, that is what breaks my heart! I was curing my darling so
fast, and now they will do all they can to destroy him. Their not
letting his wife see him terrifies me."
"I think I can explain that. Now tell me--what time do you expect--a
certain event?"
Lady Bassett blushed and cast a hasty glance at the speaker; but he had
a piece of paper before him, and was preparing to take down her reply,
with the innocent face of a man who had asked a simple and necessary
question in the way of business.
Then Lady Bassett looked at Mary Wells, and this look Mr. Rolfe
surprised, because he himself looked up to see why the lady hesitated.
After an expressive glance between the mistress and maid, the lady
said, almost inaudibly, "More than three months;" and then she blushed
all over.
Mr. Rolfe looked at the two women a moment, and seemed a little puzzled
at their telegraphing each other on such a subject; but he coolly noted
down Lady Bassett's reply on a card about the size of a foolscap sheet,
and then set himself to write on the same card the other facts he had
elicited.
While he was doing this very slowly, with great care and pains, the
lady was eying him like a zoologist studying some new animal.
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