"Yes; just keep still as you are, and I"ll re-tie the cravat."
He held still, enjoying, as he always did, having her deft fingers at work about him, and gazing the while into the pretty face, with eyes full of loving admiration.
"There!" she said at length, leaning back a little to take in the full effect, "I don"t believe that can be improved upon."
"Much obliged," he said, getting up from his knees. "Now, what next?"
"Your hair, of course," she answered, jumping up and leading the way into the dressing-room. "Sit down," arming herself with comb and brush, "you know I"m not tall enough to reach your head while you"re standing up."
He obeyed, asking, "What have you been doing to-day?"
"What a question!" she returned, laughing; "of course, I"d take my pleasure when my lord and master was away."
"Don"t call me that, dear," he said in a tone of gentle, half remorseful expostulation.
"Why not? doesn"t the Bible say Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord?"
"But it doesn"t say master, and besides, these are very different times."
"We seem to have changed sides on that subject," she said, with a merry little laugh, as she laid the brush away, and standing behind his chair, put her arms around his neck and laid her cheek to his.
He drew her round to a seat upon his knee. "Darling, I don"t mean to play the tyrant, and am quite ashamed of some things I said last night."
"Then you won"t say them any more, will you? I was really afraid you were turning into a horrid tyrant. Oh, you haven"t told me who the visitors are who came in the carriage with you!"
"The daughter and niece of an old friend of my father"s, Miss f.a.n.n.y Deane and Miss Susie Fleming."
"How long are they likely to stay?"
"I don"t know; probably two or three weeks."
"You asked what I"d been doing. Studying hard part of the time, that I might please this old tutor of mine," giving him another tug. "Will you be pleased to hear me recite now?"
"There would not be time before tea, dear," he said, consulting his watch; "so we will put it off till later in the evening. Come down to the drawing-room with me and let me introduce you to the ladies."
"Very well; but first tell me if my toilet satisfies you."
He gave her a scrutinizing glance. "Entirely; you are as lovely as a fairy," he said, with a proud, fond smile.
"Oh, you flatterer!" she returned with a pleased laugh, and slipping her hand into his.
"Your wife!" exclaimed both ladies when the introduction was over. "She looks so young!"
"So _very_ young that I should have taken her for a school-girl," added Miss Deane, with a condescending smile that enraged Zoe.
"And I take you for an old maid of twenty-five," was her mental retort. "I dare say you"d be glad enough to be as young as I am, and to have such a handsome husband." But she merely made a demure little courtesy and withdrew to a seat beside her mother-in-law on the farther side of the room, her heightened color and flashing eyes alone telling how indignant she felt.
"Never mind, dear, you are growing older every day," Elsie said in a soothing undertone, "and are just the right age for Edward. We all think that, and I that you are a dear little daughter for me."
"Thank you, dear mamma," whispered Zoe. "I think it was very rude and unkind to liken me to a school-girl. I believe it was just because she envies me my youth and my husband."
"Perhaps so," Elsie said, with difficulty restraining a smile, "but we will try to be charitable and think the remark was not unkindly meant."
Edward took Miss Deane in to supper, which was presently announced. Zoe did not like that, as Elsie perceived with some concern.
The young lady had very fine conversational powers and was very fond of displaying them; she soon obtained and held the attention of all the older people at the table, and Zoe felt herself more and more aggrieved. Edward was positively careless of her wants, leaving her to be waited upon by the servants.
When they returned to the drawing-room he seated himself beside Miss Deane again, and the flow of talk recommenced, he continuing a delighted listener.
Zoe feigned not to notice or care, but it was a very transparent pretence.
Edward had devoted himself so almost exclusively to her ever since their marriage, that she could scarce endure to have it otherwise.
She could not refrain from watching him furtively and trying to catch his every look, word and tone.
After a little she stole quietly from the room and went up to her own.
"He will miss me presently," she thought, "remember about the lessons, and come up to hear them, and I"ll have him all to myself for at least a little while."
He did not come, but at length Rosie looked in to say, "Won"t you come down to the music-room, Zoe? Miss Fleming is going to play for us, and she is said to be quite a wonderful performer."
Zoe accepted the invitation; she was fond of music, and it wasn"t Miss Fleming who had robbed her of Edward. Yet, when she saw him standing beside her, a rapt and delighted listener, and a.s.siduously turning her music, she began to almost hate her, too.
The advent of these two strangers seemed to have rendered ineffectual all the efforts she had put forth that day to gratify her husband; of what use was it that she had so carefully prepared the lessons he would not trouble himself to hear? or that she had spent hours of patient practice at the piano in learning the song she was given no opportunity to play and sing?
But womanly pride was awaking within her, and she made a tolerably successful effort to control and hide her feelings.
When at length she found herself alone with Edward in their own apartments, she moved silently about making her preparations for retiring, seeming to have nothing to say.
He burst into enthusiastic praises of the talents of their guests--the conversational gift of the one, the musical genius of the other.
Zoe, standing before the mirror, brushing out her soft shining tresses, made no response.
"Why are you so silent, little woman?" Edward asked presently.
"Because I have nothing to say that you would want to hear."
"Nothing that I would want to hear? why, I am fond of the very sound of your voice. But what"s the matter?" for he had come to her side, and perceived with surprise and concern that her eyes were full of tears.
"Oh, nothing! except that I"d looked forward to a delightful evening with my husband, after being parted from him all day, and didn"t get it."
"My dear Zoe," he said, "I owe you an apology! I actually forgot all about those lessons."
"And me, too," she said bitterly. "My musical and conversational gifts sink into utter insignificance beside those of these newcomers."
"Jealousy is a very mean and wicked pa.s.sion, Zoe; I don"t like to see you indulging it," he said, turning away from her. "I am, of course, expected to pay some attention to my mother"s guests, and you will have to put up with it."
"You are always right and I am always wrong," she said, half choking with indignation; "but if you are always to do as _you_ please, I shall do as _I_ please."
"In regard to what?" he asked coldly.