"
CHAPTER XXI
THE OTHER WOMAN
Carlo Baroni's joy knew no bounds when he understood that Diana had
definitely decided to return to the concert platform. His first action
was to order her away for a complete change and rest, so she and Joan
obediently packed their trunks and departed to Switzerland, where they
forgot for a time the existence of such things as London fogs, either
real or figurative, and threw themselves heart and soul into the winter
sports that were going forward.
The middle of February found them once more in England, and Joan rejoined
her father, while Diana went back to Lilac Lodge. She was greatly
relieved to discover that the break had simplified several problems and
made it much easier for her to meet her husband and begin life again on
fresh terms. Max, indeed, seemed to have accepted the new _regime_ with
that same mocking philosophy with which he invariably faced the problems
of life--and which so successfully cloaked his hurt from prying eyes.
He was uniformly kind in his manner to his wife--with that light,
half-cynical kindness which he had accorded her in the train on their
first memorable journey together, and which effectually set them as far
apart from each other as though they stood at the opposite ends of the
earth.
Unreasonably enough, Diana bitterly resented this attitude. Womanlike,
she made more than one attempt to re-open the matter over which they had
quarrelled, but each was skilfully turned aside, and the fact that after
his one rejected effort at reconciliation, Max had calmly accepted the
new order of things, added fuel to the jealous fire that burned within
her.
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