"But that is not what I meant, dear," he replied. "I am only returned to dress. I dine out." "Dine out, Frank?" she said, trying hard not to seem troubled. "Yes--obliged to. Two or three fellows at the club. Couldn't refuse. You will excuse me to-night, little one?" "Oh yes, Frank," she said quickly, "if you must go, dear. I will not say I am not disappointed; but if you must go--" "Yes, I must, really," he said. "Don't fidget, and don't wait up. There may be a rubber of whist afterwards, and I shall be late." "How easy it is to lie and deceive!" thought Renee, as, with the same calm, placid smile, she listened to her husband's excuses. "You are going, Frank, to that handsome, fashionable-looking woman? You will dine with her, and spend the evening at her house, while I, with breaking heart, sit here alone, mad almost with jealousy I dare not show." Thoughts like these flitted through her mind as she put up her face and kissed him before quietly ringing the bell for her dinner to be served, and going down to the solitary meal. Her husband came in for a moment to say good-bye, cheerfully, and then she was alone. It was a hard and a bitter task, but she fulfilled it, sitting there calmly, and partaking of her solitary dinner. It was for his sake, she said, for no servant must dream that they were not happy; all must go on as usual, and some day he would come back repentant to her forgiving arms, won by her patience and long-suffering. She sat thinking this over and over again later in the drawing-room with a sad smile upon her lips, pitying, but telling herself that she could be strong enough to fulfil her self-imposed task. Not one word of reproach should be his, only tenderness and kindness always. She was his wife, and would forgive; yes, had already forgiven, and granted him a dispensation for the sins against her that he might commit. "Poor Frank, he never loved me as he thought he did; but I shall win him yet," she murmured; and then started, for she fancied that she heard a door close. She saw nothing, though, and paid little heed, for if it was, it might easily be one of the servants in the farther drawing-room, one of the set of three, the third being quite a small boudoir, where she was seated, while the others were only half lit. She leaned back in her low chair dreaming of the happy days to come, when her husband would return to her, and then her thoughts glided off to Gertrude and her projected marriage. "I wonder whether I shall have a child," she thought, "and if so, whether I shall be, in time to come, as mamma is. Poor Gerty! it seems very shocking that she, too, while caring for another, should be almost forced to accept the addresses of an old man like Lord Henry Moorpark. For that's what mamma means," she said half aloud.