A very rage of anger swells up within his heart, and with it a first doubt—a first suspicion of the honour of her on whom he had set his soul! Perhaps the ground was ready for the sowing.
"Saw her? Yes, indeed," says Minnie, still with the air of childish candour. "It was because I saw her that I was so frightened about Tita. Do you know, Sir Maurice,"—most ingenuously this—"I don't think Mrs. Bethune likes Tita."
"Why should you suppose such a thing?" says Rylton. His face is dark and lowering. "Tita seems to me to be a person impossible to dislike."
"Ah, that is what I think," says Minnie. "And it made me the more surprised that Mrs. Bethune should look at her so unkindly. Well," smiling very naturally and pleasantly, "I suppose there is nothing in it. It was only my love for Tita that made me come and tell you what was troubling me."
"Why not tell Tita?"
"Ah, Tita is a little angel," says Minnie Hescott. "I might as well speak to the winds as to her. I tried to tell her, you know, and——"
"And——"
He looked up eagerly.
"And she wouldn't listen. I tell you she is an angel," says Minnie, laughing. She stops. "I suppose it is all nonsense—all my own folly; but I am so fond of Tita, that I felt terrified when I saw Mrs. Bethune look so unkindly at her on the balcony."
"You are sure you were not dreaming?" says Rylton, making an effort, and growing careless once again in his manner.