She checked herself suddenly.
“But what are we to do?” said the elder woman, spreading out her hands. “I’m not a prude; but the whole thing is shocking in a country like this. How are we to prevent it ever coming to your father’s ears?”
“I’m going to tell him as soon as he comes back,” Muriel replied.
“Oh, you’re incorrigible,” exclaimed Lady Smith-Evered, angrily. “You hav’n’t got the sense even to know when to hold your tongue.” She rose to her feet and paced up and down the room. “What’s to be done? Will you please tell me what’s to be done?”
“Nothing much,” Muriel answered. She was becoming calmer now. She saw herself in a new light, and her humiliation was extreme. Lady Smith-Evered belonged to that world which Daniel had tried to teach her to despise; and in this woman’s eyes she appeared merely as a foolish, naughty girl, whose rash actions had to be covered up by some sort of lie. She would have infinitely preferred it if she had been instantly ostracized and cut.
“Of course,” Lady Smith-Evered went on, “I shall tell my maid that the whole thing is nonsense; and it’s just possible that the story will go no further. But you ought to be ashamed of yourself for taking such risks. And I have no words to express what I feel about Mr. Lane.”
“Oh, please leave him out of it,” Muriel exclaimed. “He never asked me to come, or knew I was coming.”
Lady Smith-Evered sniffed. “He knows his own power over women,” she said.
Muriel turned upon her fiercely. “I tell you he is in no way to blame.”
Her visitor bowed. “I respect you for trying to defend him,” she answered. “We women always defend the men we love.”