Page:Conflict (1927).pdf/330

 rode and tramped together daytimes, and sat before glowing fires in the evening, always talking for the first hour before the fire about Sheilah and the latest news from her. Roger came to know Sheilah's three children intimately, and her hopes and anxieties in regard to each. Later he and Cicely discussed books and plays, and music, which they both loved, and politics occasionally. Cicely had an excellent mind. She was still a very lovely woman. And avery much wiser one. If jealousy still pricked her (and it did when Roger's eyes kindled so over Sheilah's name) she kept it well hidden, simply smiling, offering him more wine from her cup, intoxicating him with conversation about another woman. But hers was the hand that lay within reach.