She can ride back to the lodgings." The nurse murmured something
in French about the child being as heavy as lead.
"Do as I bid you," he said sharply, in the same language. "Effie, my
love, give me a kiss and go home. Thank you for coming to see me."
The child obeyed and went. Lady Honoria stood and watched her go,
tapping her little foot upon the floor, and with a look upon her cold,
handsome face that was not altogether agreeable to see.
It had sometimes happened that, in the course of his married life,
Geoffrey returned home with a little of that added fondness which
absence is fabled to beget. On these occasions he was commonly so
unfortunate as to find that Lady Honoria belied the saying, that she
greeted him with arrears of grievances and was, if possible, more frigid
than ever.
Was this to be repeated now that he had come back from what was so
near to being the longest absence of all? It looked like it. He noted
symptoms of the rising storm, symptoms with which he was but too well
acquainted, and both for his own sake and for hers--for above all things
Geoffrey dreaded these bitter matrimonial bickerings--tried to think of
something kind to say.
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