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Updated: May 27, 2025
Wingarde drank his tea, strolling about the room. He did not again address his wife directly. As for Nina, though she answered Archie when he spoke to her, it was with very obvious effort. She glanced from time to time at her husband as if in some uncertainty. Finally, when they took leave of the matron and went down to the car she seemed to hail the move with relief.
"It seems he was nearly ruined over your last coup. You may do that sort of thing once too often, don't you know. I shouldn't chance another throw." Nina stood up shakily and looked at her husband. "If you only would give it up!" she said, with trembling vehemence. "I I hate money!" Wingarde made no response; but Archie instantly took her up. "You only hate money for what it can't buy," he said.
Archie glanced at Nina and saw her agitation. He came coolly forward and placed himself in the breach. "We certainly didn't," he said. "It's good sometimes to know that people are not all they seem. I congratulate you, er Dr. Wade." Wingarde turned his attention to his wife's companion. His face was very dark. "Take the child to her mother, please, Mrs. Ritchie!" he said curtly, over his shoulder.
His action pierced straight through her pride to something that sheltered behind it, and inflicted a grevious wound. "Jove! Here's a crush!" laughed Archie Neville. "Delighted to meet you again, Mrs. Wingarde! How did you find the Lakes?" His good-looking, boyish face was full of pleasure. He had not expected to meet her. Nina's welcoming smile was radiant.
It was a small circumstance, but it stuck in his memory. A house had been lent them for the honeymoon by one of Nina's wealthy friends in the Lake District. They arrived there hard upon midnight, having dined on board the train. A light meal awaited them, to which they immediately sat down. "You are tired," Wingarde said, as the lamplight fell upon his bride's flushed face and bright eyes.
A crowd surrounded them, and a man at his elbow informed him that his driver had thrown down the reins and jumped off before they were clear of the railway bridge. Archie swallowed the comment upon this discreet behaviour, that rose to his lips. A moment later Wingarde, who had seemed on the point of departure, pushed his way hastily-back to him. "Never mind the hansom!" he said.
She turned to her husband. "Couldn't you come, too, for once, Hereford?" she asked. "We were thinking of the theatre. It it would be nice if you came too." The falter in the last sentence betrayed the fact that she was nervous. Wingarde smiled faintly, contemptuously, as he made reply. "Really, that's very kind of you," he said. "But I am compelled to plead a prior engagement.
Hereford Wingarde, standing by his wife's side, the recipient of congratulations from crowds of people who seemed to be her intimate friends, but whom he had never seen before, noted that salute of Archie Neville's with a very slight lift of his black brows. He noted also that Nina returned it, and that her hand lingered in that of the young man longer than in those of any of her other friends.
We ought to go to church." Wingarde turned round. "What an inspiration!" he said dryly. His tone offended her. She drew herself up. "Are you coming?" she asked coldly. He looked at her with the same cynical smile with which he had received her overture the night before. "No," he said. "I won't bore you with my company this morning." She shrugged her shoulders.
Nina's pride or her courage shrank from any expression of gratitude. In the afternoon with intense thankfulness she travelled southward. Never were London smoke and dust more welcome. They went straight to Wingarde's great house in Crofton Square. Dinner was served immediately upon their arrival. "I must ask you to excuse me," Wingarde said, directly dessert was placed upon the table.
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