Tenterhooks Part 37

'Why do you think he's gone away?' he rather irritatingly persisted.

'I haven't the slightest idea.'

'Do you know, Edith, it has sometimes occurred to me that if--that, well--well, you know what I mean--if things had turned out differently, and you had done as I asked you--'

'Well?'

'Why, I have a sort of idea,' he looked away, 'that Aylmer might--well, might have proposed to you!'

'Oh! _What_ an extraordinary idea!'

'But he never did show any sign whatever, I suppose of--well, of--being more interested in you than he ought to have been?'

'Good heavens, no!'

'Oh, of course, I know that--you're not his style. You liked him very much, didn't you, Edith?...'

'I like him very much now.'

'However, I doubt if you ever quite appreciated him. He's so full of ability; such an intellectual chap! Aylmer is more a man's man. _I_ miss him, of course. He was a very great friend of mine. And he didn't ever at all, in the least--seem to--'

'Seem to what?'

'It would have been a very unfair advantage to take of my absence if he had,' continued Bruce.

'Oh!'

'But he was incapable of it, of course.'

'Of course.'

'He _never_ showed any special interest, then, beyond--'

'Never.'

'I was right, I suppose, as usual. You never appreciated him; he was not the sort of man a woman _would_ appreciate ... But he's a great loss to me, Edith. I need a man who can understand--Intellectual sympathy--'

'Mr Vincy!' announced the servant.

Vincy had not lost his extraordinary gift for turning up at the right moment. He was more welcome than ever now.