Serial Monogamy

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Authors: Kate Taylor
continued, “that you would call me by my Christian name.” It had become his familiar request now, a not-altogether-happy joke between them.
    “Oh, perhaps someday,” Nelly said, shaking her head with a little laugh.
    “Someday soon?”
    “Well, I am not sure what you mean by soon,” she answered. “And really there is no point to my agreeing toa future time when I might call you by your Christian name. At that rate I might just as well do it right away.”
    “So why not do it right away then?”
    “Perhaps I feel that you need something to look forward to,” she said.
    “You lead me a merry chase.”
    “Oh, no. I think you are the one leading.”
    “Right then, a chase for daffodils,” he said, grabbing her hand and running with her the last few yards toward the dell.
    “There you go, milady, I present you with spring.”
    “Lovely. So thoughtful of you to have arranged it. It always is my favourite season.”
    —
    It was not the first time they had walked out together; the first time had been a few weeks previously when he had suggested to her that she might like to join him on his family’s regular Sunday walk on the heath. When she had alighted from the carriage he had sent for her, she was not altogether surprised to discover that he was the only member of his family present. They had walked all afternoon, two hours or more, and he had talked to her of the novel he was planning.
    “How fares the French novel?” she asked now as they continued their way uphill beyond the daffodil dell.
    “It fares very well,” he said. “Thank you so much for asking.”
    “And did you decide why the doctor was imprisoned in the first place?”
    “Well, it’s something to do with the aristocratic family, some secret of theirs he might expose, but I was thinking it need never be spelled out.”
    “Won’t the reader want to know?” she asked.
    “Yes, I suppose so, but I think some readers will realize that it’s a thing of his past and that his past is gone; he isn’t really that person any more.”
    “You mean people change?”
    “Yes, and also that we can’t fully know other people. We only know ourselves. He is a man who has been imprisoned. That is all we can see of him.”
    “How very wise that sounds. Each of us a book closed to others.”
    “Perhaps not entirely closed but hard to read. I certainly find your thoughts mysterious,” he said.
    And yet he was often all too transparent to her, Nelly thought. But she replied nothing and was glad he did not pursue the topic as they were forced off the path to negotiate their way around a muddy patch.
    “Let me give you my arm here,” he said. “The frost has made the ground slippery.”
    “Did you hear from our friend in Drury Lane?” he asked as they started up again.
    “Not yet.”
    “Perhaps I might write him another little note.”
    “Please don’t. I wouldn’t want him to give me a part because he felt obliged to you.”
    “Of course not, my dear. I would never wish to interfere. But you will excuse me if I am convinced you will shine in a Shakespearean role if only given the opportunity your talents deserve.”
    “Yes, well, let’s wait a bit to see if the manager agrees with you. And in the meantime”—at this she struck a melodramatic pose—“No, Mr. Waterspout, it was the parrot.”
    He laughed. “Yes, you have a great feel for that material too. No doubt about it. I am sure you have numerous admirers at the stage door every night.”
    “Oh, dozens. A queue of them all the way down Haymarket.”
    “And a special one in a little red waistcoat?” Suddenly his tone was sharper, almost nasty.
    “I’m not sure what you mean.”
    “Clean-shaven young man. Red waistcoat. He was there the other night.” Mr. Dickens had collected Nelly at the Theatre Royal the week previously and taken her and Mrs. Ternan to supper.
    “Oh.” She almost guffawed in recognition. “That’s only Robby Strachan.”
    “And who is Robby

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