Honoria thought that he was making
reparation for his sharp words, and so he was, but to himself, and in
another sense. Every time he gave her money in this fashion, Geoffrey
felt like a man who has paid off a debt of honour. She had taunted
him again and again with her poverty--the poverty she said that he had
brought her; for every taunt he would heap upon her all those things in
which her soul delighted. He would glut her with wealth as, in her hour
of victory, Queen Tomyris glutted dead Cyrus with the blood of men.
It was an odd way of taking a revenge, and one that suited Lady Honoria
admirably; but though its victim felt no sting, it gave Geoffrey much
secret relief. Also he was curious; he wished to see if there was
any bottom to such a woman's desire for luxury, if it would not bring
satiety with it. But Lady Honoria was a very bad subject for such an
experiment. She never showed the least sign of being satiated, either
with fine things, with pleasures, or with social delights. They were her
natural element, and he might as soon have expected a fish to weary of
the water, or an eagle of the rushing air.
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