Colouring with shame and displeasure, she sat down with a sort of ‘I am ready’ air, and took off her walking things, laying them down deliberately, and waiting in complete silence. Did she wish to embarrass him, or did she await his first word to decide what line she should take?
‘Theodora,’ he said at length, ‘when I spoke last night, I did not know how early your acquaintance with this lady had begun, or I should have shown more regard to the feeling that arises between old companions. I am afraid I gave you some unnecessary pain.’
This was unexpected; and she could not at once harden herself in displeasure, so that though she spoke not, her countenance was relenting.
‘Did Mrs. Martindale mention what I told her yesterday!’
‘No; she only said you had been here while I was gone to satisfy my mind.’
‘And did you?’
‘I should never have defended Georgina’s marriage if I had known the whole; but the rest of what you have heard is slander.’
‘That is what I came to explain;’ and Percy repeated the history he had before given to Violet, adding a warning of the same kind as John’s against placing Arthur in Mr. Gardner’s way.
‘The point is,’ said Theodora, ‘what construction is to be placed on the present state of things? You and Lady Fotheringham, who have not seen them, take one view; I, who do see them, and who know Georgina intimately, take another, in which I agree with her husband and with the elder sister, who lives with her.’
‘Intimately! When you had no idea of this first affair!’