tone with which she responded, to cause him to turn his head. “I see that you would really like to have me entertain the child; but—”
She paused, pursing up her lips to meet the chattering bird’s caress, while her husband in his impatience drummed with his fingers on the pane.
—“I must see her before I decide upon the length of her visit,” continued she, as weary with the sport she drew back to give herself a final look in the glass. “Will you please to hand me that shawl, Edward.”
He turned with alacrity. In his relief he could have kissed the snowy neck held so erectly before him, as he drew around it the shawl he had hastily lifted from the chair at his side. But that would not have suited this calm and languid beauty who disliked any too overt tribute to her charms and saved her caresses for her bird. Besides it would look like gratitude, and gratitude would be misplaced towards a wife who had just indicated her acceptance of his offer to receive a relative of her own into his house.