THE LOVER
before yesterday. She came in just before supper; I was out, but she stayed a long time talking to Richard. Oh, Richard, look at Herbert getting crimson with jealousy!" Herbert, who never changed colour except after meals or from violent exertion, beamed with gratification. "Never mind, Herbert," said Cicely, "I'm jealous, too, you see."
Herbert was often irritated by the way that Richard and Cicely looked at one another across him. He did not enjoy the feeling of exclusion. But of course he and Doris would be able to look at each other across people just like that when they were married.
"Do bring it over here, Richard," said Cicely, nodding at the portrait. "I want to look at it again." Tea was carried in, not noiselessly, but quite unnoticed. The brother and sister were looking at the photograph. Herbert leant back, smiling at it with an absent and leisurely pride. Cicely bent forward in eager and short-sighted scrutiny. She seemed to be looking for something in it that she could not find.
A young lady with symmetrically puffed-out hair returned both regards from out of a
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