"I would rather make allowances, Iris, for you. Do you, too wish me

to leave Paris?"

Sitting very near to him--nearer than her husband might have liked to

see--Iris drew away a little. "Did you mean to be cruel in saying

that?" she asked. "I don't deserve it."

"It was kindly meant," Hugh assured her. "If I can make your position

more endurable by going away, I will leave Paris to-morrow."

Iris moved back again to the place which she had already occupied. She

was eager to thank him (for a reason not yet mentioned) as she had

never thanked him yet. Silently and softly she offered her gratitude to

Hugh, by offering her cheek. The irritating influence of Lord Harry's

jealousy was felt by both of them at that moment. He kissed her

cheek--and lingered over it. She was the first to recover herself.

"When you spoke just now of my position with my husband," she said,

"you reminded me of anxieties, Hugh, in which you once shared, and of

services which I can never forget."

Preparing him in those words for the disclosure which she had now to

make, Iris alluded to the vagabond life of adventure which Lord Harry

had led. The restlessness in his nature which that life implied, had

latterly shown itself again; and his wife had traced the cause to a

letter from Ireland, communicating a report that the assassin of Arthur

Mountjoy had been seen in London, and was supposed to be passing under

the name of Carrigeen. Hugh would understand that the desperate

resolution to revenge the murder of his friend, with which Lord Harry

had left England in the past time, had been urged into action once

more. He had not concealed from Iris that she must be resigned to his

leaving her for awhile, if the report which had reached him from

Ireland proved to be true. It would be useless, and worse than useless,

to remind this reckless man of the danger that threatened him from the

Invincibles, if he returned to England. In using her power of

influencing the husband who still loved her, Iris could only hope to

exercise a salutary restraint in her own domestic interests, appealing

to him for indulgence by careful submission to any exactions on which

his capricious jealousy might insist. Would sad necessity excuse her,

if she accepted Mountjoy's offer to leave Paris, for the one reason

that her husband had asked it of her as a favour?

Hugh at once understood her motive, and assured her of his sympathy.




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