"Do you see a ghost?" whispers Mrs. Bethune to him, who has been watching him with cruel amusement.
"I don't know," he answers, hardly hearing her. Is not Tita to-day a ghost of her sweet self? And those words, "A sinner above all the Galileans!" Is there such a sinner?—and if so, surely it is——
Hescott lifts his eyes to meet those of Rylton. For a moment the two men regard each other steadily, and in that moment know that each hates the other with an undying intensity. Mrs. Bethune, who alone sees the working of the little tragedy, leans back in her chair, and lets her lids fall over her eyes. So still she lies that one might think her sleeping, but she is only battling with a fierce joy that threatens every moment to break its bonds, and declare her secret to the world!
During all this, conversation has been going on. Last night's sayings and doings are on the tapis, and everyone is giving his and her experiences. Just now the rather disreputable wife of a decidedly disreputable neighbour is lying on the social dissecting board.
"She gives herself away a good deal, I must say," says Mrs.
Chichester, who loves to hear her own voice, and who certainly
cannot be called ungenerous on her own account. "The way she dances!
And her frock! Good heavens!"
"I hear she makes all her own clothes," says Margaret, who perhaps hopes that this may be one small point in her favour.
Minnie Hescott makes a little moue.
"She may possibly make the things that cover her——"
"That what?" questions Mr. Gower, resting innocent eyes on hers, but Miss Hescott very properly refuses to hear him.
"It must be a matter for regret to all well-minded people," says Miss Gower, shaking her head until all her ringlets are set flying, "that when making that hideous dress, she did not add a yard or two, to——" She pauses.