‘I think I had better see you alone for a few minutes before I go. Your father seems much better. Can you leave him for a short time? I will not detain you long.’
Roma rose at once, after she had read these words, and quietly crossed the room to the door, which opened noiselessly. Tor followed her out, and as soon as she had sent Mr. Meredith’s servant into his master’s room, she led the way down to the dining-room, where some refreshments had been spread for the watchers.
‘Ah, this is well—this is as it should be,’ said Tor, looking round with some satisfaction. ‘I was summoned away in the midst of my dinner, Miss Meredith, so I am hungry, and you ought to be, whether you are or not. In the character of your affianced husband’—here he smiled in his frankest way—‘you must allow me to insist upon your eating something.’
Roma sat down and poured out the tea, which was standing ready. She was confused and unhappy, and Tor was sincerely sorry for her.
‘Look here, Roma,’ he said, addressing her in a far more brotherly fashion than he ever managed to assume towards Maud. ‘I wish you would not make yourself miserable over your father’s fancy. I know quite well how it has all arisen, and it is a pity; but, you know, it is no bond, really; only I think, just for the time being, we must humour him by the fiction of an engagement. I hope it is not very distasteful to you. We will keep it as quiet as possible, and I will take the earliest chance that I can to put matters right. I know it is hard upon you; but it seems the only way.’
‘Hard upon me!’ echoed Roma; ‘as if that mattered! I am his daughter; I would do anything for him—I must; but you—oh, it makes me so ashamed!’
‘Why should you be ashamed? You cannot help the curious bent of your father’s mind, nor his feebleness, which makes agitation so bad for him. We must take things as we find them, and make the best of his eccentricity. I do not think it is so very bad, after all. We quite understand one another, and we can surely be friendly conspirators in our cause, without being painfully afraid of one another.’
Roma began to smile in a tremulous sort of way. ‘You are very good to take it like that. It might have been so dreadful.’
‘Dreadful for you, no doubt, though hardly so for me,’ he answered gallantly. Then, to put her more completely at her ease, he continued gravely, ‘No, Roma, you need not be at all afraid of me; for I had lost my heart before ever I saw you, and it is not mine now to give away. I confide in you, because I am sure that perfect frankness is best between us; but I must ask you to guard my secret jealously, for there are reasons why I cannot make it known as yet to anyone. You see, you are already my chosen confidante, and my only one.’
‘Doesn’t Maud know?’