‘Captain Norton, I must go.’
‘Must you? If I leave the house myself—if I leave the cantonment, and do not return?’
‘You are not in earnest?’ she said, raising her eyes to mine, too weary to be called surprised.
‘I am. I have long intended going to Haldabad on a shooting excursion, which may detain me for two or three months. Inadvertently almost I have delayed it, your visit and Janie’s illness coming in the way; but now I am ready to start at twelve hours’ notice, if need be—indeed, I am anxious to be gone.’
‘And what will Janie say to that, Captain Norton?’ she demanded in a lowered voice.
‘At this moment I believe that my absence will affect Janie less than your departure would do. She is very much attached to you, and she feels the comfort of a woman’s presence. Added to which, Margaret, I am in a great measure responsible to your uncle for your proceedings, and I shall not feel easy if you leave my house for a stranger’s without previously asking his consent. He will imagine I have proved unfaithful to my trust. Do you wish others to think as badly of me as I do of myself?’
As I uttered these words I dropped my voice almost to a whisper, but she heard them plainly.
‘Oh, let me go! let me go!’ she exclaimed wildly. ‘It will be better, far better, for all of us. I cannot, indeed I cannot, remain here; the air of this place stifles me.’
‘I have made you despise me,’ I said despondently.
‘No; oh no!’ and her dark eyes were fixed upon me for a moment with an expression which I would have kept in them for ever; ‘but—you know, Captain Norton, that it is best—that, in fact, we must part.’