"I am happy, perfectly happy I have everything in the world I desire--health, wealth and my darling child." "I see you don't count your husband among your blessings," said Eustace. "Oh, yes! I'm very fond of Guy. He is the father of my child!" "Is that the only reason you are fond of him?" "Really, Mr. Gartney, I do not see by what right you speak like this to me," she said with great hauteur. "I beg your pardon," said Eustace, with cold politeness. "I was wrong to do so." Lady Errington began to twist her marriage ring round and round, as if she wanted to pull it off, and a frown passed across her mobile face. Eustace, versed in the ways of her sex, knew that those signs betokened further remarks on her part, so he wisely said nothing, but waited for the outburst, which came exactly as he expected. "I am very fond of Guy," she asserted defiantly. "I would not have married him if I had not been fond of him. What makes you think I'm not? I suppose Aunt Jelly has been saying something?" "My dear Lady Errington," responded Gartney replacing, his cup on the table, "I had no right to speak as I did. I beg your pardon." "Please answer my question, Mr. Gartney," she said angrily, a red spot of colour burning on either cheek. "Has Aunt Jelly been saying anything?" Gartney was not the man to remain in any difficulty where a lie could help him out of it, so he replied to her question with the greatest deliberation. "Aunt Jelly has been saying nothing. The only reason that makes me speak is that you seem to me to be fonder of the baby than of your own husband." The murder was out, and he was prepared for a storm, but it did not come, as Alizon had quite as much self-control as himself. "Well, and what is wrong in that?" she said coldly. "I do love my child more than my husband, any mother would." "Isn't that rather hard on the husband?" "No! I do not see it! Of course, I love Guy very much--much more than he loves his child," she finished with a burst of passion. "I think Guy is very fond of the child," said Eustace quietly. "He is not," she replied angrily, rising to her feet; "he grudges every hour I spend with the boy. He would have me neglect the child in order to be always with him. But there, what is the use of talking?--neither you nor Guy can understand the feelings of a mother." This remark closed the discussion so far as Eustace was concerned, for he deemed it useless to argue with a woman who was so blind to everything except her maternal feelings, so he hastened to turn the conversation. "You are right there, Lady Errington," he said good-humouredly, "I am a bachelor, so know absolutely nothing about these things. But Guy looks a little knocked up, so I want to take him to town with me."