“Has he gone, Frank?” Katie asked, as her husband entered the drawing-room alone. “Yes, pet, I wanted to have you all to myself.”
Katie was standing with her elbow on the mantel, her smooth forehead was knitted up into a frown, and she looked a very thoughtful little personage indeed.
“So that is the Fred Bingham I have often heard you speak of, Frank?”
Frank nodded.
“And you really like him, Frank, really think him honest and true?”
“I don't like him so very much, Katie, but I think he is a thoroughly good-hearted fellow.”
“Frank, I would not trust him as far as I could see him.”
[251]
“No, Katie!” Frank said, half amused, half vexed at finding his wife thus early set against the friend for whom he had already fought so many hard battles. “Don't you like him, then?”
“He is amusing,” Katie said, indifferently, “but oh, Frank! he is so false. My flesh crept all over when he shook hands with me this morning.”
“Now, that's not like you, Katie; I am sure he made himself very agreeable. I don't like you to take prejudices against men I have so long known.”
“I am sorry, Frank,” she said, simply, “but I can't help myself. A man I don't like at first sight I never like. A man I do like, I like very much; and I always find I am right. It is an instinct, or a prejudice, if you like, Frank, but in some things instinct is stronger than reason.”
Frank was vexed, but he only said, “Well, Katie, one can't argue against a prejudice. Only, remember I like Fred Bingham, and have always found him a very good fellow, and I have known him for many years. Besides, [252] Katie, you know your prejudices are sometimes erroneous.”
His wife made a gesture of dissent.
“Come, Katie, you know you almost hated me at first, and yet I think you like me a little now.”
Katie coloured. “You silly boy, you know that was a different thing; you know why I hated you.”
“No, really, Katie; why?”
But this was a secret Katie could only tell when she had nestled close up to her husband, and his arm was round her waist. Then she looked up in his face, and said, “I hated you, Frank, because you were making me love you before I thought you loved me.”
“And now, Katie,” Frank said presently, “I must tell you what I have learned from Fred Bingham, and it has affected me very much, dear.”
Katie was all attention now, and took her stand by her husband's chair, so that she could pet him if such a step were necessary.
“It is rather a difficult thing for a man to say, Katie, and it is only because I was really [253] ignorant and wholly innocent in the affair that I can tell you at all. I am very much afraid that, without the slightest intention on my part, I have made a very dear, good girl unhappy.”
Katie drew a little farther off now.
“Alice Heathcote?”
“Yes, dear, Alice Heathcote; Fred says, and he was certainly quite in earnest about it, that my uncle's anger is caused by his disappointment at my not marrying Alice. He says my uncle has harped upon the subject until he thinks with me that his brain has gone a little wrong. But the worst of it is, he is convinced that Alice—well, it seems absurd, Katie—did love me, and that my uncle's indignation and anger are upon her account.”
“You are sure, quite sure, Frank, that you never made love to her?”
“Quite sure, you jealous little thing. I always liked her, Kate, just as I might like a sister. I never had the slightest idea of making love to her. I would tell you if I had, dear, for I do not want to have any secrets from you. She, [254] no doubt, misinterpreted my manner, and her uncle having made up his mind I was to marry her, led her into the mistake. She has been poorly for some time, Katie, and I am really afraid it is from that. It is very absurd, of course.”
“I am really very sorry, Frank,” Katie said, feeling that Frank was speaking the whole truth, and that she could afford to be magnanimous, “but what is to be done? I am afraid it is too late for me to give you up now.”
“You are a goose, Katie. But be serious, and give me your opinion. What is to be done?”
“The only thing which I can suggest, Frank, is for me to go to her and say that I am sorry the mistake has occurred, and that I will go back to Staffordshire again, and let you do as you like.”
Katie had never seen Miss Heathcote; nevertheless, from what Frank had told her of their early life together, she had somehow intuitively felt her to be a rival, and now, like a true woman, could not help a little enjoyment of her triumph.
[255]
“Very well, Katie, if that is the way you look upon it, we will not discuss the matter any farther.”
Frank was really hurt, and he spoke coldly, as he had never spoken to his wife before.
“No, no, Frank!” she said, throwing her arm round his neck as he was rising from his chair. “I am wrong, dear, I am very wrong; but you know I am a wild little thing; don't be angry with me, darling. It was natural, you know, that I should be a little jealous of other people loving my Frank as I love him. But I quite believe what you say, and am really very sorry for Miss Heathcote. I can fancy how unhappy she must be. She is very nice, isn't she?”
“She is very nice, Katie, and most men would have loved her very much. She is not my style, you know; I like something I can pet and love; she was too tall and stately, not a bit like you, Katie; as nice in her way as you are in yours, but then her way was not my way, and I suppose yours is.”
Katie was quite mollified now.
[256]
“Poor Alice!” she said, “I wish I had known her.”
“I can't quite make it all out,” Frank said thoughtfully. “Alice certainly was quiet, and looked ill for some time after that row I had with Captain Bradshaw. But she was looking better and brighter again lately, and since I have been engaged t............