"I am going too. You will let me go?" said Sophie.
"Certainly," said Lady Ongar. "I proposed to you to do so yesterday."
"You should not be so hard upon your poor friend," said Sophie. This was said in the hearing of Lady Ongar's maid and of two waiters, and Lady Ongar made no reply to it. When they were in the carriage together, the maid being then stowed away in a dickey or rumble behind, Sophie again whined and was repentant. "Julie, you should not be so hard upon your poor Sophie."
"It seems to me that the hardest things said were spoken by you."
"Then I will beg your pardon. I am impulsive. I do not restrain myself. When I am angry I say I know not what. If I said any words that were wrong, I will apologize, and beg to be forgiven,—there,—on my knees." And, as she spoke, the adroit little woman contrived to get herself down upon her knees on the floor of the carriage. "There; say that I am forgiven; say that Sophie is pardoned." The little woman had calculated that even should her Julie pardon her, Julie would hardly condescend to ask for the two ten-pound notes.
But Lady Ongar had stoutly determined that there should be no further intimacy, and had reflected that a better occasion for a quarrel could hardly be vouchsafed to her than that afforded by Sophie's treachery in bringing her brother down to Freshwater. She was too strong, and too much mistress of her will, to be cheated now out of her advantage. "Madame Gordeloup, that attitude is absurd;—I beg you will get up."
"Never; never till you have pardoned me." And Sophie crouched still lower, till she was all among the dressing-cases and little bags at the bottom of the carriage. "I will not get up till you say the words, 'Sophie, dear, I forgive you.'"
"Then I fear you will have an uncomfortable drive. Luckily it will be very short. It is only half-an-hour to Yarmouth."
"And I will kneel again on board the packet; and on the—what you call, platform,—and in the railway carriage,—and in the street. I will kneel to my Julie everywhere, till she say, 'Sophie, dear, I forgive you!'"
"Madame Gordeloup, pray understand me; between you and me there shall be no further intimacy."