Page:Neith Boyce--The bond.djvu/215

Rh with her had brought him more discomfort than anything else.

Basil was not happy during that winter. lie regretted the emotional complication he had been drawn into, and found the inevitable process of getting out of it difficult and unpleasant. The only cheerful thing about the situation was that Teresa apparently did not suspect it. And even this had a tinge of bitterness, for he thought that if she had not been absorbed herself, she would have suspected.

Teresa was absorbed—but not in any one person—only in amusing herself. She had never before been so gay. She saw many people, and gaiety made her more popular; she basked in the sense of being liked. She perceived that Basil was unusually moody, but now she did not always try to get to the bottom of his moods. He said that work and money were bothering him, and was no less affectionate to her, but rather more so.

Isabel Perry's demands ended by wearying him profoundly, and he came to Teresa for peace and comfort. But he had a grievance against Teresa, too, and this was that she now made so few demands on him. By way of attaining peace with her, he accused her of being more interested in someone else. The jealousy of Fairfax, which he had resolutely stifled