“Is Mr. Barringcourt’s company more agreeable than mine?”
“I thought it was, and have paid the penalty. Don’t reproach me. I can’t stand it to-night. Perhaps to-morrow.”
“I don’t wish to reproach you. Once I thought the same, for an hour or two, like you. But I got over it as you have done. You will not care for his company now?”
“No.”
“That is well. I suppose you know you are not to go downstairs again?”
“Yes. What am I to do, Mariana, to pass the time away?”
“I don’t know of anything. I wish you had come in by five o’clock. There are so many interesting things below.”
Rosalie laughed.
“Oh, I didn’t come in, so there’s an end of it! I’ll take supper now and go to bed.”
She sipped the glass of warm milk silently, and then together they went to bed. How cold it was in the corridor. How ill lit and melancholy it appeared And Rosalie lay awake, with burning tears, which were never shed, in her eyes.