Aunt Francesca was very angry with me."
"Yes, I remember that. I felt as though you were being punished for my
sins. It was years afterward that I saw I'd been sufficiently punished
myself. Look!"
She leaned toward him and showed him a narrow white line on the soft
flesh between her forefinger and her thumb, extending back over her
hand.
"A thorn," she said. "I shall carry the scar to my dying day."
With a little catch in his throat, Allison caught the little hand and
pressed it to his lips. "Forgive me!" he said.
VI
THE LIGHT ON THE ALTAR
Colonel Kent had gone away on a short business trip and Allison was
spending his evenings, which otherwise would have been lonely, at Madame
Bernard's. After talking for a time with Aunt Francesca and Isabel, it
seemed natural for him to take up his violin and suggest, if only by a
half-humorous glance, that Rose should go to the piano.
Sometimes they played for their own pleasure and sometimes worked for
their own benefit. Neither Madame nor Isabel minded hearing the same
thing a dozen times or more in the course of an evening, for, as Madame
said, with a twinkle in her blue eyes, it made "a pleasant noise," and
Isabel did not trouble herself to listen.
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