Do you see
our situation now, as it really is? Very well. Pass the bottle, and
drop the subject for the present."
The next morning brought with it an event, which demolished the
doctor's ingenious arrangement for the dismissal of Iris from the scene
of action. Lord and Lady Harry encountered each other accidentally on
the stairs.
Distrusting herself if she ventured to look at him, Iris turned her
eyes away from her husband. He misinterpreted the action as an
expression of contempt. Anger at once inclined him to follow Mr.
Vimpany's advice.
He opened the door of the dining-room, empty at that moment, and told
Iris that he wished to speak with her. What his villainous friend had
suggested that he should say, on the subject of a separation, he now
repeated with a repellent firmness which he was far from really
feeling. The acting was bad, but the effect was produced. For the first
time, his wife spoke to him.
"Do you really mean it?" she asked,
The tone in which she said those words, sadly and regretfully telling
its tale of uncontrollable surprise; the tender remembrance of past
happy days in her eyes; the quivering pain, expressive of wounded love,
that parted her lips in the effort to breathe freely, touched his
heart, try as he might in the wretched pride of the moment to conceal
it.
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