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And as he looked at her he thought to himself, here was a rare thing, a beautiful woman with a tender heart. He knew she would be gentle and kind to the meanest of God's creatures. And again the vision of her at Bracondale came to him his mother would grow to love her perhaps even more than Morella Winmarleigh! How she would glorify everything commonplace with those tender ways of hers!
Then she remembered she had not been sacrificed to Josiah Brown for nothing, and that even if dear, generous papa should happen to be a little hard up again, a few hundred francs would be nothing to her to slip into his hand before starting. The rest of the party, however, declined. They were all busy elsewhere, except Lord Bracondale and the French Count they would come, with pleasure, they said.
Hector Bracondale, among other attractions, had a charming voice; it was deep and arresting, and he had a way of looking straight into the eyes of the person he was talking to. Theodora knew at once he belonged to the tribe whom Sarah had told her could never be husbands. She wondered vaguely why, all the time she was talking to him.
"Yes, I know." Then they were both silent for a while Anne's thoughts busy with the mournful idea of the end of the House of Bracondale should Hector never marry, and the Crow's of her in sympathy, his eyes watching her face. At last she spoke. "I believe it would be best for Hector to go right away for a year or so," she sighed. "But, however it may be, I fear, alas! it can only end in tears."
And although Lord Bracondale called at her hotel and walked where he thought he should see her, and even drove in the Acacias, they had no meeting. Josiah did not feel himself sufficiently strong to stand the air of theatres, and they went nowhere in the evenings. He was keeping himself for his own dinner-party, which was to take place at the Madrid on the Monday.
Harryman Hoggenwater and an elderly Austrian, and before the hors d'oeuvres were cleared away both gentlemen had decided to make love to her. It was when the bisque d'écrevisses was being handed she became conscious that, not two tables off, there was an empty one simply arranged with flowers, and almost at the same instant Lord Bracondale and his party arrived upon the scene.
Josiah is not strong enough yet for late hours or theatres." "It sounds supernaturally gay for Paris!" said Lord Bracondale; and then he felt a brute when he saw the cloud in the blue eyes. "No, it is not gay," she said, simply.
That last success with Princess Waldersheim had turned his empty head. So she called him and planted him in a safe place by an American girl, who would know how to keep him, and then turned to her own affairs again. The Prince was a man of the world, and understood life. So Theodora and Lord Bracondale were left in peace.
"My dear Monica," said Jack Ellerwood, who joined rarely in the conversation, "Hector has been sitting facing this way all through dinner. He is a man who can appreciate what he sees, and I do not fancy has missed much have you, Hector?" and he smiled a quiet smile. Mrs. Ellerwood looked at Lord Bracondale and laughed. "It is I who am stupid," she said.
Then they descended to an agreeable lunch in the restaurant, with a numerous party of her friends as usual, and Lord Bracondale felt afterwards full of joy and hope, to continue his sinful path unrepenting. The days that intervened before Theodora saw him again were uneventful and full of blankness.
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