"She is not. She's very much distressed, and every reason to be, God knows; and she's not going to see you to-night."
Raymond took it quietly and his restraint instantly alarmed Mrs.
Dinnett.
"It's not my fault, Mr. Ironsyde. But seeing how things are between you, she was cruel put about this afternoon, and she's got to think of herself if you can do things like that at such a moment."
"She must try and keep her nerve better. There was no reason why I should break promises. She ought to have waited for me to come to her."
Mary Dinnett flamed again.
"You can say that! And didn't she wait all the morning to see if you'd come to her—and me? And as to promises—it don't trouble you to break promises, else you'd have seen your family yesterday, as you told Sabina you were going to do."
"Is she going to the mill to-morrow?" he asked, ignoring the attack.
"No, she ain't going to the mill. It isn't a right and fitting thing that the woman you're going to marry and the mother of your future child should be working in a spinning mill; and if you don't know it, others do."
"She told you then—against my wishes?"
"And what are your wishes alongside of your acts? You're behaving very wickedly, Mr. Ironsyde, and driving my daughter frantic; and if she can't tell her mother her sorrows, who should know?"