The Reason Why

looked at one another with no great love in their eyes, though she who had entered was well worth looking at, from a number of points of view. Firstly, she had that arresting,

assemblage of people conversatio

yes were black; just great pools of ink, or disks of black velvet, set in their broad lids and shaded with jet lashes, but if they chanced to glance up in the full light then you knew they were slate color, not a tinge of brown or green-the whole iris was a uniform shade: strange, slumberous, resentful eyes, under straight, thick, black brows, the expression full of all sorts of meanings, though none of them peaceful or calm. And from some far back Spanish-Jewess ancestress she probably got that glorious head of red hair, the color of a ripe chestnut when it falls from its shell, or a beautifully groomed bright bay horse. The heavy pl

ur that she asked in a low, cu

y have you sent for m

an: "You astonishingly attractive devil. You have all the pride of my father, the Emperor. How he would have gloried in you! You are enough to drive any man mad: you shall be a paw

into which she sank without more ado and there waited, with folded hands, for him to continue. Her stillness was always as intense as his own, but whereas his had a nervous tension of c

as all

is Markru

ds. You do not suppose I took the trouble to send for you from Paris last w

fine contempt. "I did not

"I am sorry I have had to be away, since your arrival, unti

table," she a

There is no possible mistake in his identity? I believe the face was practically shot away, was it not? I have taken the

moment. She wailed over the body like a squealing rabbit. She was there lamenting his fine eyes when they sent for me! They were gone for ever, but no one could mistake his curly hair, nor his cruel, white hands. Ah! it was a scene of

with those others." And here Francis Markrute's voi

t them? And sometimes we have found it hard at the end of the quarter-bu

eginning, if I could have found him I would have killed him, as you know, but now

th resentment. She did not speak. Francis Markrute stood by the mantelpiece, and lit a cigar

teen," he said at last. "And up to thirteen at least I know you we

concentrated essence of bitterness in

bably think y

tle, and showed her even teeth

tes like Ladislaus, or clever, successful financiers like you, my unc

don't know

her voice trembled a little-"he only thought of himself, and to rush to England f

sband whom you will be good enough to take, mada

if anything so mirthless

over me; I shall

aid with quiet assurance, "if I kno

s was often alert like a wild animal's, about to be attacked;

the terms?

er in the Zoo, which he was so fond of going to watch on Sun

one of business, all his natural ease of manner returned, and

shall be provided for for life. He shall live with d

ruptly and re

e pride and control of her voice there was a note of anguish, too, which wo

her, "I have paid the price of my body and soul once f

u please," sai

a move, when one was really interested, was always a point to the adversary. He maintained interest could be simulated when necessary, but must never be shown when real. So he left his niece in silence, wh

nsulted from morning to night. I hated him always, but he seemed so kind beforehand-kind to my darling mother, whom you were leaving to die."-Here Francis Markrute winced and a look of pain ca

ere she turned and spoke again, with her hand on the bronze tracery of the fingerplate, making, unconsciously, a highly dramati

almost a sob in her voice. "I will not do it

ant back in his chair and puffed

e subject of philosophy, and a well-thumbed volume of the fragments of Epicurus lay on a table by his side. He picked it up now and read: "He who wastes his youth on high feeding, on wine, on women, forgets that he is like a man who wears out his overcoat in the summer." He h

s on a low stand near, and he read again a

ht a small party at Glastonbury House, among the guests being-" and here he skipped so

e, and no one would have recognized h

a! belle