Part 30 (1/2)
”Until our wedding day, you mean? Well, the wedding day must be fixed before you go.”
”I yield. The first part of May.”
”Three months! Let it be April at least, Kathy.”
”No, I am for May.”
”It's an unlucky month.”
”Oh, _we_ can defy bad luck, can't we?” Katherine smiled.
”If you go away, I shall,” said Odd, after a moment's silence.
”Why, I thought you would stay here and look after mamma--and Hilda,”
said Katherine slowly, and with a wondering thought for this revealment of poor Peter's folly. Peter then intended to heroically sacrifice his infidelity. That he should think she did not see it!
”I am not over this beastly cold yet. A trip through Provence would set me right. I should come back through Touraine just at the season of lilacs. I am afraid I should be useless here in Paris. I see so little of your mother--and Hilda. Arrange that Taylor shall go for her after her lessons.”
”I am afraid that mamma can't spare Taylor.”
Peter moved impatiently.
”Katherine, may I give you some money? She would take it from you.
Persuade her to give up that work. You could do it delicately.”
”As I have told you, you exaggerate my influence. She would suspect the donor. She would not take the money.”
”I could speak to your father; lend him a sum.”
Katherine flushed.
”It would make him very angry with her if he knew. And the lessons are a fixed sum; only a steady income would be the equivalent.”
”Oh dear!” sighed Peter. He suddenly realized that of late he had talked of little else but Hilda in his conversations with Katherine.
”When do you go to London, dear?” he asked.
”The day after to-morrow.” Katherine, above the waving of her fan, smiled slightly at his change of tone. ”Will you miss me, Peter?”
”All the more for being cross with you. It is very wrong of you to play truant like this.”
”It will be good for both of us.” Katherine's voice was playful, and showed no trace of the bitterness she was feeling. ”I might get tired of you, Peter, if I allowed myself no interludes. Absence is the best fuel to appreciation. I shall come back realizing more fully than ever your perfection.”
”What a sage little person it is! Sarcastic as well! May I write to you very often?”
”As often as you feel like it; but don't force feeling.”
”May I describe chateaux and churches? And will you read my descriptions if I do?”