"But--you are almost always with her!" at length replied Sybil, with
another dry sob.
"I confess that, dear; but it was because you were almost always absent
on your domestic affairs."
"You hang enraptured over her, when she sings and plays!"
"Enraptured with her music, darling, not with her. To me she is a prima
donna, whose performances I must admire and applaud--nothing more."
"Then I wish I was a prima donna too," said Sybil, bitterly.
"My wife!" he exclaimed.
"Yes, I do! I would be all in all to you, Lyon, as you are everything to
me," she cried, her face quivering, her bosom heaving with emotion.
"My own dear Sybil, you are all in all to me. Do you not know, dear,
that you are unique? that there is not another like you in the world;
and that I value you and love you accordingly? What is this
shallow-hearted blonde beauty to me? This woman, who, in a week, could
forget the man who had robbed and deserted her, and give herself up to
amusement! No, dear wife. I may be pleased with her good-natured efforts
to please me; I may admire her beauty and delight in her music; but I
care so little for herself, that were she to die to-day, I should only
say, 'Poor thing,' and immediately forget her! While, if you were to
die, dear wife, life would be a living death, and the world a sepulchre
to me!"
"Is this true? Oh! is this indeed true?" exclaimed Sybil, in deep
emotion.
"As I am a man of truth, it is, as true as Heaven!" answered Lyon
Berners, earnestly.
And Sybil turned and threw herself in his arms, weeping for joy.
"You shall have no more cause for distress, dear, warm-hearted wife. This
lady must find other audience for her music. For, as to me, I shall not
indulge in her society at such a cost to your feelings," said Lyon
Berners earnestly, as he returned her warm caress.
"No, no, no, no," exclaimed Sybil, generously. "You shall deny yourself
no pleasure, for my sake, dear, dear Lyon! I am not such a churl as to
require such a sacrifice. Only let me feel sure of your love, and then
you may read with her all the morning, and play and sing with her all
the evening, and I shall not care. I shall even be pleased, because you
are so. But only let me feel sure of your love. For, oh! dear Lyon! I
live only in your heart, and if any woman were to thrust me thence, I
should die!"
"Nor man, nor woman, nor angel, nor devil, shall ever do that, dear
Sybil," he earnestly answered.
The reconciliation between the husband and the wife was perfect. And
Sybil was so happy that, in the lightness of her heart, she became
kinder to Mrs. Blondelle than she had been for many days past.