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There is no other rational way of accounting for it.
_La mignonne_ was not indignant now, as might have been expected; but
she gazed at the speaker long and more searchingly than was her wont,
with something very like pity in her kind, earnest eyes.
I suppose you would not sneer so at every thing if you could help it,
she said. I am not wise enough to do so; but I don't envy you.
Royston's hard cold face changed for an instant, and the faintest flush
lingered there, about as long as your breath would upon polished steel.
It was not the first time that one of her random shafts had struck him
home. All the sarcasm had died out of his voice as he answered slowly
Don't you envy me? You are right there. And you think you are not wise
enough to be cynical? If there was any school to teach us how to turn
our talents to the best account, I know which of us two would have most
to learn. When he spoke again it was in his usual manner, but upon
another and perfectly indifferent subject.
Harry had taken no part in the discussion. Always languid, toward night
he generally felt especially disinclined to any bodily or mental
exertion. At such times there was nothing he liked so well as to lie on
his sofa and assist at a passageofarms between his wife and Keene,
encouraging either party occasionally with an approving smile, but
preserving a cautious and complete neutrality. On the present occasion
he had his own reasons for not being disappointed about the latter's
appreciation of Miss Tresilyan. Had he felt any such misgivings, they
would have vanished later in the evening.
The doctor was a stern man; but he must have been more than human to
have stood fast against the entreaties and cajolement with which his
patient backed up the petition, to be allowed just one cigar before
going to roost. The prospect of this compensating weed had supported
poor Harry through the dullness and privations of many monotonous days.
As the appointed time drew nigh, he would freshen up visibly, just like
the camels when, staggering fetlock deep through the sandwastes, they
scent the water or sight the clump of palms. Was there more in all this
than could be traced to the mere soothing influence of the nicotine and
flavor of the tobacco? Might not this one old habit still indulged have
been the only link that sensibly connected the invalid with those
pleasant days, when he enjoyed life so heartily, with so many cheery
comrades to keep him in countenancewhen he would have laughed at the
idea of any thing short of a sabrecut, a shotwound, or a rattling fall
over an oxer, bringing him down to that state of helpless dependence,
when our conception of womankind resolves itself into the ministering

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