“Oh, nothing. A sudden twinge. A man does not get rolled over sharp rocks, by a mountain torrent, for nothing.”
“No, indeed.”
“Never mind that, if I'm not to be punished in my heart as well. This resolution, not to marry for two years, is it your own idea? or has somebody put it into your head since we stood on Cairnhope, and looked at Bollinghope?”
“Please give me credit for it,” said Grace, turning very red: “it is the only sensible one I have had for a long time.”
Mr. Coventry groaned aloud, and turned very pale.
Grace said she wanted to go upstairs for her work, and so got away from him.
She turned at the door, and saw him sink into a chair, with an agony in his face that was quite new to him.
She fled to her own room, to think it all over, and she entered it so rapidly that she caught Jael crying, and rocking herself before the fire.
The moment she came in Jael got up, and affected to be very busy, arranging things; but always kept her back turned to Grace.
The young lady sat down, and leaned her cheek on her hand, and reflected very sadly and seriously on the misery she had left in the drawing-room, and the tears she had found here.