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Updated: June 13, 2025
Afterwards ten years at first in the cities, then in the dark places of Africa years of which no man knew anything. The Everard Dominey of ten years ago had been, without a doubt, good-looking. The finely shaped features remained, but the eyes had lost their lustre, his figure its elasticity, his mouth its firmness.
"You, who came home to her with the blood on your hands of the man whom, if only you had kept away, she might one day have loved? Unreasonable, you call it?" "I have finished what I had to say, Mrs. Unthank," Dominey declared. "I am compelled by important business to leave here for two or three days. On my return I shall embark upon the changes with which I have acquainted you.
A shade of deeper trouble came into Seaman's face as he stepped respectfully to one side. "What is it that has happened?" Dominey demanded. "Lady Dominey has returned," was the quiet reply.
There was another somewhat awkward pause, which the younger man endeavoured to bridge over. "Fishing, shooting, golf," he said; "I really don't know what we poor medical practitioners would do in the country without sport." "I shall remind you of that later," Dominey observed. "I am told that the shooting is one of the only glories that has not passed away from Dominey."
Dominey asked curiously. "I am part of a great machine," was the somewhat evasive reply. "I have nothing to do but obey." A flicker of passion distorted Dominey's face, flamed for a moment in his tone. "Are you content to live and die like this?" he demanded. "Don't you want to get back to where a different sort of sun will warm your heart and fill your pulses?
Dominey rang the bell, ordered hock and seltzer and ice. Seaman drank and threw himself into an easy-chair. "There is no fear of your being called out of the country because of that, I hope?" he asked a little anxiously, nodding his head towards his companion's uniform. "Not at present," Dominey answered. "I am a trifle over age to go with the first batch or two. Where have you been?"
You seem to have got rid of every one of your bad habits, you drink moderately, as a gentleman should, you have subdued your violent temper, and you have collected around you, where your personality could be the only inducement, friends of distinction and interest. This is not at all what one expected from the Everard Dominey who scuttled out of England a dozen years ago."
He had no country then save the paradise where lovers walk, no ruler but a queen, and I was she. And now " Dominey felt a strange pang of distress. She saw the unusual softening in his face, and her eyes lit up. "Just for a moment," she broke off, "you were like Leopold. As a rule, you know, you are not like him. I think that you left him somewhere in Africa and came home in his likeness."
The doctor paused, sipped his wine, emptied his glass and set it down approvingly. "Or?" Dominey insisted. "Or that part of her brain will be more or less permanently affected. However, I am hoping for the best. Thank heavens you're on the spot!" They finished their dinner almost in silence. Afterwards, they smoked for a few minutes upon the terrace. Then they made their way softly upstairs.
Dominey, having changed into travelling clothes, sent a messenger for Mrs. Unthank, who came to him presently in his study. He held out a chair to her, which she declined, however, to take. "Mrs. Unthank," he said, "I should like to know why you have been content to remain my wife's attendant for the last ten years?" Mrs. Unthank was startled by the suddenness of the attack.
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