"He does not like to ask her," said Edith. "He thinks that Mrs. Pulteney has not shown herself very kind of late. We are waiting till you speak to him about it."
"But what does Florian do with himself?" he asked.
"You will see. He does little or nothing, but roams about the house and talks to Peter. He did not even go to mass last Sunday. He says that the whole congregation would accuse him of being a liar."
"Does he not know that he has done his duty by the lie he has told?"
"But to go alone among these people!" said Ada.
"And to hear their damnable taunts!" said Edith. "It is very hard upon him. I think it is papa's idea to keep him here till after the trial in August, and then, if possible, to send him to England. There would be the double journey else, and papa thinks that there would be no real danger till his evidence had been given."
Then Frank went out of the house and walked round the demesne, so that he might think at his ease of all the troubles of his family.