They were both a little constrained upon the journey back to
Versailles--and both felt it. But when they turned into the Porte St.
Antoine Theodora woke up.
"Do you know," she said, "something tells me that for a long, long time
I shall not again have such a happy day. It can't be more than half-past
five or six--need we go back to the Reservoirs yet? Could we not have
tea at the little café by the lake?"
He gave the order to his chauffeur, and then he turned to her.
"I, too, want to prolong it all," he said, "and I want to make you
happy--always."
"It is only lately that I have begun to think about things," she said,
softly--"about happiness, I mean, and its possibilities and
impossibilities. I think before my marriage I must have been half
asleep, and very young."
And Hector thought, "You are still, but I shall awake you."
"You see," she continued, "I had never read any novels, or books about
life until Jean d'Agrève. And now I wonder sometimes if it is possible
to be really happy--really, really happy?"
"I know it is," he said; "but only in one way."
She did not dare to ask in what way. She looked down and clasped her
hands.
"I once thought," she went on, hurriedly, "that I was perfectly happy
the first time Josiah gave me two thousand francs, and told me to go out
with my maid and buy just what I wished with it; and oh, we bought
everything I could think Sarah and Clementine could want, numbers and
numbers of things, and I remember I was fearfully excited when they were
sent off to Dieppe. But I never knew if I chose well or if they liked
them all quite, and now to do that does not give me nearly so much joy."
Soon they drew up at the little café and ordered tea, which he guessed
probably would be very bad and they would not drink. But tea was
English, and more novel than coffee for Theodora, and that she must
have, she said.
She was so gracious and sweet in the pouring of it out, when presently
it came, and the elderly waiter seemed so sympathetic, and it was all
gay and bright with the late afternoon sun streaming upon them.
"The garçon takes us for a honeymoon couple," Hector said; "he sees you
have beautiful new clothes, and that we have not yet begun to yawn with
each other."