"Going to Stoughton with papa."
"But—but—Miss Guion—"
"I'm not going to be married," she continued, in the same even tone. "I thought perhaps Colonel Ashley might have told you. That's all over."
"All over—how?"
"He's been so magnificent—so wonderful. He stood by me during all my trouble, never letting me know that he'd changed in any way—"
"Oh, he's changed, has he?"
Because he sat slightly behind her, she missed the thunderous gloom in his face, while she was too intent on what she was saying to note the significance in his tone.
"Perhaps he hasn't changed so much, after all. As I think it over I'm inclined to believe that he was in love with Drusilla from the first-only my coming to Southsea brought in a disturbing—"
"Then he's a hound! I'd begun to think better of him—I did think better of him—but now, by God, I'll—"
With a backward gesture of the hand, without looking at him, she made him resume the seat from which he was again about to spring.