She still avoided Treherne,
but so skillfully that few observed the change but Annon and himself. In
public Sir Jasper appeared to worship at the sprightly Rose's shrine,
and she fancied her game was prospering well.
But had any one peeped behind the scenes it would have been discovered
that during the half hour before dinner, when everyone was in their
dressing rooms and the general taking his nap, a pair of ghostly black
figures flitted about the haunted gallery, where no servant ventured
without orders. The major fancied himself the only one who had made this
discovery, for Mrs. Snowdon affected Treherne's society in public, and
was assiduous in serving and amusing the "dear convalescent," as she
called him. But the general did not sleep; he too watched and waited,
longing yet dreading to speak, and hoping that this was but a harmless
freak of Edith's, for her caprices were many, and till now he had
indulged them freely. This hesitation disgusted the major, who, being a
bachelor, knew little of women's ways, and less of their powers of
persuasion. The day before New Year he took a sudden resolution, and
demanded a private interview with the general.
"I have come on an unpleasant errand, sir," he abruptly began, as the
old man received him with an expression which rather daunted the major.
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