"But my——" (I suppressed "my aunt" with an inward twist of questioning anguish) "——shall I not be asked where I am going and why?"
He said no. Because he would make the others a sign. He thought my sister was too excited to take any notice of my going. "But if she does, I'll tell her you wanted her to go on singing. I shall seem to be coming after you. But I'll stop to explain that we've had an argument about one of the pictures in the hall." He told me what I was to do.
"If, after all, they were to prevent me—what, what then?"
"They won't—they will leave you to me." He said it with a look that stopped the heart.
I implored him to let me go out alone.
He fixed his unhappy eyes on mine. "You would never be allowed out of this room alone."
"I could say I must post a letter."
"They would ring for a servant."
I measured the long room. "If once I got as far as the door I could run."
"——as far as the front door perhaps. You would find it locked. No servant would open it for you."