“O! yes, surely, did you not see me in the room just now! I felt as if I should die of shame! But if you knew what it is to be dependent—to be unable to speak or to expostulate—you would guess perhaps——”
“Yes! Yes! I think I can understand. But pray don’t distress yourself about it! It was my own fault! I should have addressed her first through my solicitor. But I thought she was a gentlewoman!”
“It is her temper that gets the better of her,” said Miss Wynward in an apologetic tone, “she is not always so bad as she was this morning!”
“That is fortunate for the world at large,” replied Captain Hill, gravely. “I could have forgiven her vulgarity, but not her heartlessness. I can only think that she is a most terrible woman.”
“That is what everybody says,” answered his companion, “but she will admit of no remonstrance. She will have her own way, and the Baron is as powerless to refrain her, as you, or I. But that she should so insult a gentleman like yourself, even descending to oaths and personalities—O! I cannot tell you how much I felt it—how ashamed I was, and how anxious that you should not confound me with anything the Baroness said, or did!”
“Indeed,” said Captain Hill, holding out his hand, “you need have no fear on that score. I hope I know a gentlewoman when I see her! But tell me, since your eyes are open to all this, how is it that a lady like yourself can stay under the roof of so terrible a person? There are plenty of other situations to be had! Why do you not leave her, and go elsewhere?”
He was struck by the look of mingled anxiety and fear with which she regarded him.
“O! Captain Hill, there are reasons that are difficult to explain—that I could not tell to anyone on so short an acquaintance. But the Baroness possesses great power—she could ruin me, I believe she could kill if she chose!”
“She threatens you then!”
“Yes!” came from Miss Wynward’s lips, but in almost a whisper.