Page:The Fruit of the Tree (Wharton 1907).djvu/368

Rh off, her clear eyes on her friend’s; and she saw at once that Bessy was too self-engrossed to feel any surprise at her avowal. “Surely he came back?” she went on.

“Oh, yes—he came back!" Bessy sank into the cushions, watching the ﬁrelight play on her diamond chain as she repeated the restless gesture of lifting it up and letting it slip through her ﬁngers.

“Well—and then?”

“Then—nothing! I was not here when he came.”

“You were not here? What had happened?”

“I had gone over to Blanche Carbury’s for a day or two. I was just leaving when I heard he was coming back, and I couldn’t throw her over at the last moment.”

Justine tried to catch the glance that ﬂuttered evasively under Bessy’s lashes. “You knew he was coming—and you chose that time to go to Mrs. Carbury’s?”

“I didn’t choose, my dear—it just happened! And it really happened for the best. I suppose he was annoyed at my going—you know he has a ridiculous prejudice against Blanche—and so the next morning he rushed off to his cotton mill.”

There was a pause, while the diamonds continued to ﬂow in threads of ﬁre through Mrs. Amherst’s ﬁngers.

At length Justine said: “Did Mr. Amherst know that you knew he was coming back before you left for Mrs. Carbury’s?” [ 352 ]