"
"This room," said Lucy, "is much too large."
"There's only room for you and me in it."
"All the better, so long as there's room for me."
"And the walls are all lath and plaster. When Maddox is in another
room I can hear him breathing."
"And when I'm in another room I shall hear you breathing; and then I
shall know you're alive when I'm afraid you're not. I'm glad the walls
are all lath and plaster."
"But it isn't a pretty house, Lucy."
"It will be a pretty house when I'm in it," said she, and was admitted
to have had the best of the argument.
"Then, if you really don't mind, we shan't have to wait. Not a week,
if you're ready to come to me."
But Lucia's face was sad. "Keith--darling--don't make plans till we
know what Sir Wilfrid Spence says."
"I shall, whatever he says. But I suppose I must consult him before I
take you to Alassio."
For still at his heart, under all its happiness, there lay that
annihilating doubt; the doubt and the fear that had been sown there by
Horace Jewdwine. He could see for himself that one of his terrors was
baseless; but there remained that other more terrible possibility.
None of them had dared to put it into words; but it was implied,
reiterated, in the name of Sir Wilfrid Spence. He had moreover a
feeling that this happiness of his was too perfect, that it must be
taken away from him.
He confided his trouble to Kitty that night, sitting up over the
drawing-room fire.
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