I counted the hours
of the journey; I counted the miles. At last I reached his house; I found
a gay company there. I was a little sorry, but I said: 'His friends shall
be welcome, right welcome. He has asked them to welcome his wife.'"
"Poor thing!" muttered Triplet.
"Oh, Mr. Triplet! they were there to do honor to ----, and the wife was
neither expected nor desired. There lay my letters with their seals
unbroken. I know all _his_ letters by heart, Mr. Triplet. The seals
unbroken--unbroken! Mr. Triplet."
"It is abominable!" cried Triplet fiercely. "And she who sat in my
seat--in his house, and in his heart--was this lady, the actress you so
praised to me?"
"That lady, ma'am," said Triplet, "has been deceived as well as you."
"I am convinced of it," said Mabel.
"And it is my painful duty to tell you, madam, that, with all her talents
and sweetness, she has a fiery temper; yes, a very fiery temper,"
continued Triplet, stoutly, though with an uneasy glance in a certain
direction; "and I have reason to believe she is angry, and thinks more of
her own ill-usage than yours. Don't you go near her. Trust to my
knowledge of the sex, madam; I am a dramatic writer. Did you ever read
the 'Rival Queens'?"
"No."
"I thought not. Well, madam, one stabs the other, and the one that is
stabbed says things to the other that are more biting than steel.
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