“You are quite right, sir,” broke in Kate,—“I have earned nothing. Not just yet,” added she, as her stepmother pressed a glass of wine on her acceptance; “a little later, perhaps. I have no appetite now.”
“Are ye sae stupid, ma'am, that ye canna see ye are dealin' wi' a fine leddy, wha is no obleeged to hae the same mind twa minutes thegither? Ye 'll hae to train wee Janet to be a' ready for whate'er caprice is uppermost. But mine me, lassie,”—here he turned a look of stern meaning towards her,—“ye hae tried for mony a lang day to subdue me to your whims and fancies, as they tell me ye hae done wi' sae mony others, and ye are just as far fra it noo as the first time ye tried it. Ye canna cheat nor cajole me! I know ye!” And with these words, uttered in a tone of intense passion, he slowly walked out of the room.
“Had he been angry with you?—had anything occurred before I came in?” asked her stepmother.
“Very little,” sighed Kate, wearily. “He was asking me why I came here, I believe. I could scarcely tell him; perhaps I don't very well know, myself.”
“He can't get it out of his head,” said the other, in a low, stealthy whisper, “that, if you should leave Lady Dorothea, he will be turned away out of the stewardship. He is always saying it,—he repeats it even in his dreams. But for that, he 'd not have met you so—so—unkindly.”
Kate pressed her hand affectionately, and smiled a thankful acknowledgment of this speech. “And the cottage,” said she, rallying suddenly, “is about three miles off?”
“Not more. But you could scarcely walk there and back again. Besides, it is already growing late, and you have no chance of seeing Miss Mary if you 're not there by breakfast-time, since, when she comes home of an evening, she admits no one. She reads or studies, I believe, all the evening.”
“I think she'd see me,” said Kate; “I should have so much to tell her about her friends. I 'm sure she 'd see me,—at least, I'll try.”
“But you'll eat something,—you 'll at least drink a glass of wine before you set out?”
“I do not like to refuse you,” said Kate, smiling good-naturedly, “but I could n't swallow now. I have a choking feeling here in my throat, like a heavy cold, that seems as though it would suffocate me. Good-bye, for a while. I shall be quite well, once I 'm in the open air. Good-bye!” And, so saying, she wrapped her shawl around her, and motioning a farewell with her hand, set out on her errand.