I had not come to the comforting conclusion that she is not indifferent at the beginning of the evening though, so the sense of self-confidence and triumph did not uplift me then. I was still worried at the events of the afternoon. I had troubled to put on a tail coat and white waistcoat, not a dinner jacket as usual, and had even a buttonhole of a gardenia, found by Burton for this great occasion! I looked into her eyes with my one blue one, which is I suppose, as blue as her own. She instantly averted her glance. "I cannot offer you my arm, milady," I said rather sarcastically, "So we will have to go in after each other." She bowed and led the way. The table was too beautifully decorated, and the dinner a masterpiece! while the champagne was iced to perfection, and the Burgundy a poem! The pupils of Alathea's eyes before the partridge came, were black as night. Burton discreetly marshalled Antoine out of the room each time after the dishes were handed. "When will you get your new eye?" my wife--I like to write that!--asked in the first interval when we were alone, "and your new leg?" "I suppose they will both be restored to me in a day or two. It will be so wonderful to walk again." "I should think so." Then something seemed to strike her suddenly, of how hateful it must all have been for me. Her hard expression changed and she almost whispered: "It--will seem like a new life." "I mean to make a new life, if you will help me. I want to get away from all the old useless days. I want to do things which are worth while." "Shall you soon go into Parliament?" "I suppose it will take a year or two, but we shall begin to pave the way directly we go back to England, and I hope that will be for Christmas." She avoided looking at me. I could never catch her eye, but her adorable little profile was good enough to contemplate, the crisp curl by her ear delighted me, and another in the nape of her neck filled me with wild longings to kiss it, and the pearly skin beneath it! I think I deserve great praise for the way I acted, for the whole thing was acting. I was cold, and as haughty and aloof as she was herself, but I used every art I knew of to draw her out and make her talk. She is such a lady that she fell into the stride and spoke politely as if to some stranger who had taken her into dinner at a party. At last we talked of the Duchesse, and we discussed her interesting character, such a marvel of the _ancien régime_! "She is so very good and charitable," Alathea said, "and has always a twinkle in her eye which carries her through things." "You laugh sometimes, too?" I asked with assumed surprise. "That is delightful! I adore the 'twinkle in the eye,' but I was afraid you would never unbend far enough so that we could laugh together!" I think this offended her. "Life would be impossible without a sense of humor, even if it is a grim one."