"She sought her release!"
"She suspected the truth!" She was pale again.
"We cheated ourselves. She cared for one of her own kind. Our
renunciation was an irony."
Lady Betty bent her head. Her brow was wrinkled for a moment in thought,
and her hand trembled visibly.
"An irony--no," she said gently. "We were true to ourselves--the future
lies the fairer before us."
The press around them grew closer.
"Mais c'est chic ca!"
"Un beau talent!"
"C'est exquis!"
She took his arm, as if seeking freer air, and they moved through the
throng that continued its compliments, unsuspecting of the proximity of
either artist or subject. They stood at last on the great balcony, and
looked down on the splendid court agleam with sculpture and greenery.
"I have searched Europe for you!" he said.
"This great change in our lives--it is too wonderful to grasp all at
once," she murmured musingly.
"I do not see why we should not stroll round to the Embassy now, and
inquire," he suggested stoutly.
"Inquire about what?" she asked, her deep absent look changing to
bewilderment.
"As to when they can marry us, of course!"
"Oh, I see," she said, with a quick smile; but her glance was inward
again.
"You don't think me precipitate?" he asked uneasily.
"I am thinking of Alice," she returned. "I could have sworn she was the
soul of constancy."