Clara had her tea in her room that evening, and lived there the whole of the next day. The family down-stairs was not comfortable. Sir Anthony could not be made to understand why his guest kept her room,—which was not odd, as Lady Aylmer was very sparing in the information she gave him; and Belinda found it to be impossible to sit at table, or to say a few words to her father and mother, without showing at every moment her consciousness that a crisis had occurred. By the next day's post the letter to Mrs. Askerton was sent, and at the appointed time Captain Aylmer arrived. About an hour after he entered the house, Belinda went up-stairs with a message from him;—would Miss Amedroz see him? Miss Amedroz would see him, but made it a condition of doing so that she should not be required to meet Lady Aylmer. "She need not be afraid," said Lady Aylmer. "Unless she sends me a full apology, with a promise that she will have no further intercourse whatever with that woman, I will never willingly see her again." A meeting was therefore arranged between Captain Aylmer and Miss Amedroz in a sitting-room up-stairs.
"What is all this, Clara?" said Captain Aylmer, at once.
"Simply this,—that your mother has insulted me most wantonly."
"She says that it is you who have been uncourteous to her."
"Be it so;—you can of course believe whichever you please, and it is desirable, no doubt, that you should prefer to believe your mother."
"But I do not wish there to be any quarrel."
"But there is a quarrel, Captain Aylmer, and I must leave your father's house. I cannot stay here after what has taken place. Your mother told me;—I cannot tell you what she told me, but she made against me just those accusations which she knew it would be the hardest for me to bear."
"I'm sure you have mistaken her."
"No; I have not mistaken her."
"And where do you propose to go?"