‘Allow me to have the pleasure of accompanying Miss Lacy, Mrs Rodwell,’ said the voice of Bruce Armytage. We had reached the drawing-room floor by that time, and he stood on the threshold of the open door.
‘No, no!’ I exclaimed, as I shrank backward; ‘I do not desire it—I would rather go alone;’ and with a hasty kiss on Mrs Rodwell’s cheek, I ran down the remaining stairs and out at the hall door. The wind was blowing fresh and cold as I turned into the open air, and the night was very dark, but I thought of nothing but his offer to accompany me, and I hurried onward. Did he wish to add insult to injury?
But I had not gone far when I heard the sound of footsteps running after me; and I had hardly realised it was indeed himself before he was by my side, apologising for his presence by the excuse that Mrs Rodwell had desired him to overtake me and see me home. Would I forgive what might otherwise seem an intrusion to me? I was too indignant to vouchsafe him any answer.
We walked on in silence side by side for several minutes, I with my head bent down and holding my thick cloak around me, and he vainly endeavouring to look me in the face. At last, as though making a great effort, he cleared his throat, and said,—
‘I suppose, after the manner in which you spoke to me at the piano this evening, my pride ought to forbid my attempting any further explanation with you, but in this case I have one feeling more powerful than pride, Miss Lacy, and I must ask you what you meant by saying that all that this world could give of solace was yours?’
‘I meant what I said,’ I answered abruptly, ‘or rather, that I require no pity from you or any other stranger. Our paths in life are widely enough divided now: let each walk in his own track, without interfering with the other.’
‘That is easier said than done, perhaps,’ he replied; ‘it is difficult in this world for people to forget what they have been.’
‘It does not appear so to me.’
‘Ah, perhaps you are differently, more happily, constituted than most. They told me so long ago, though I did not believe them. Will you consider an old friend impertinent for asking if that from which you derive your solace now is the same from which you derived it then? and if so, why I still find you unsettled in life?’
‘You are speaking in riddles,’ I replied. ‘I do not understand you.’