"Because I like company. Did you ever know me go to tea without you when there was a chance of your coming? What has Jupiter been talking about all this time?"
"Jupiter has not been talking all this time. Jupiter talked only for half an hour. Jupiter is a very good fellow."
"I always thought so. Otherwise I should never have consented to have been one of his satellites, or have been contented to see you doing chief moon. But you have been with him an hour and a half."
"Since I left him I have walked all round by Bowick Lodge. I had something to think of before I could talk to you,—something to decide upon, indeed, before I could return to the house."
"What have you decided?" she asked. Her voice was altogether changed. Though she was seated in her chair and had hardly moved, her appearance and her carriage of herself were changed. She still held the cup in her hand which she had been about to fill, but her face was turned towards his, and her large brown speaking eyes were fixed upon him.
"Let me have my tea," he said, "and then I will tell you." While he drank his tea she remained quite quiet, not touching her own, but waiting patiently till it should suit him to speak. "Ella," he said, "I must tell it all to Dr. Wortle."
"Why, dearest?" As he did not answer at once, she went on with her question. "Why now more than before?"
"Nay, it is not now more than before. As we have let the before go by, we can only do it now."
"But why at all, dear? Has the argument, which was strong when we came, lost any of its force?"
"It should have had no force. We should not have taken the man's good things, and have subjected him to the injury which may come to him by our bad name."