He wanted to think and prepare himself.
Helena, who was thinking actively, leaned forward to him to say:
“Shall I not go down to Cornwall?”
By her soothing willingness to do anything for him, Siegmund knew that she was dogging him closely. He could not bear to have his anxiety protracted.
“But you have promised Louisa, have you not?” he replied.
“Oh, well!” she said, in the peculiar slighting tone she had when she wished to convey the unimportance of affairs not touching him.
“Then you must go,” he said.
“But,” she began, with harsh petulance, “I do not want to go down to Cornwall with Louisa and Olive”—she accentuated the two names—“after this,” she added.
“Then Louisa will have no holiday—and you have promised,” he said gravely.
Helena looked at him. She saw he had decided that she should go.