"Perhaps I have," his companion answered rather gravely.
These two were gentlemen of a race which is not distinguished by the
absence of reserve, and they had travelled together from London to
Rome without an allusion to matters that were uppermost in the mind of
each. There was an old subject they had once discussed, but it had
lost its recognized place in their attention, and even after their
arrival in Rome, where many things led back to it, they had kept the
same half-diffident, half-confident silence.
"I recommend you to get the doctor's consent, all the same," Lord
Warburton went on, abruptly, after an interval.
"The doctor's consent will spoil it. I never have it when I can help
it."
"What then does Mrs. Osmond think?" Ralph's friend demanded.
"I've not told her. She'll probably say that Rome's too cold and
even offer to go with me to Catania. She's capable of that."
"In your place I should like it."
"Her husband won't like it."
"Ah well, I can fancy that; though it seems to me you're not bound
to mind his likings. They're his affair."
"I don't want to make any more trouble between them," said Ralph.
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