"If it was delivered to her, she did not give it to me."
"It must have been delivered to her; it must have been left at her house, and to keep it from you is a crime. She shall be punished for it."
"Oh, Mr. Paget, do not make things harder for me than they are already!"
It was an involuntary confession, the first she had made to him, and it opened his eyes.
"You are not happy with her?" he asked.
She did not reply. To have admitted it would have been almost like asking protection from him. Her sensitive nature shrunk from such an indelicacy.
"I must go back now," she said, presently. "I have been away too long."
"I will go with you, Emilia."
"I entreat you not to do so. It will subject me to further indignity."
In this was conveyed a second involuntary confession; he noted it with burning indignation against Mrs. Seaton, but made no open comment upon it.