What could Madame Frabelle possibly know about it? What did that lady really suppose was the matter?
'What do you think I'm unhappy about?' Edith repeated.
Madame Frabelle, as has been mentioned, was willing to tell her. She told her, as usual, with fluency and inaccuracy.
Edith was much amused to find how strangely mistaken was this authoritative lady as to her intuitions, how inevitably _à faux_ with her penetrations and her instinctive guesses. Madame Frabelle said that she believed Edith was beginning to feel the dawn of love for someone, and was struggling against it. (The struggle of course in reality had long been over.)
'I haven't met him yet,' Madame Frabelle said; 'but isn't there a name I hear very often? Your husband is always talking about him; he told me I was to make the acquaintance of this great friend of his. Something tells me it is he. I shall know as soon as I see him. You can't hide it from me!'
Who was the person Bruce was always mentioning to Madame Frabelle? Certainly not Aylmer Ross--he had apparently forgotten his existence.
Madame Frabelle looked out of the window and nodded.
Edith started, and a smile curved her lips.
'It's always the husband's great friend, unfortunately,' sighed Eglantine. 'Oh, my dear' (with the usual cheap, ready-made knowingness of the cynic), 'I've seen so much of that. Now I'm going to help you. I'm determined to leave you two dear, charming people without a cloud, when I go.'
'Not yet ... no. Not while you let me stay here, dear. I've friends in London, and in the country, but I haven't looked them up, or written to them, or done anything since I've been here. I've been too happy. I couldn't be bothered. I am so interested in you! Another thing--may I say?--for I feel as if I'd known you for years. You think your husband doesn't know it. You are wrong.'
'Quite. Last night a certain look when he spoke of the Mitchells showed me that Bruce is terribly jealous. He doesn't show it, but he is.'
'But--Mrs Mitchell?' suggested Edith. 'She's one of our best friends--a dear thing. By the way, we're asking them to dine with us on Tuesday.'
'I'm delighted to hear it. I shall understand everything then. Isn't it curious--without even seeing them--that I know all about it? I think I've a touch of second sight.'