The old lady shook her head.
“You forget her circumstances,” said she. “How can a woman who has any sort of business connection, leave her work for six months? I don’t know much about these things, but I feel sure I am right in that.”
Gerard knew that she was, and found it hard to continue his argument.
“At least,” he suggested, “a six weeks’ holiday, then, might be tried with advantage. Don’t you think so?”
“She has been talking of taking a holiday,” said Lady Jennings rather coolly, “but I don’t want her to go with me. I want a little rest from her tiresome ways.”
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear you say that,” urged Gerard earnestly. “Feeling the interest I do in Miss Davison, I have always been so glad to think that she had by her a friend so judicious, so kind, and so considerate as you.”
“Consideration is wasted upon a girl so self-willed. I don’t mean to say anything against her. No doubt if she were not headstrong she would never have done anything for herself or her people. But I confess she has tried my patience lately.”
“Why doesn’t she go down to her mother for a little while?”
“She was talking of going away with her and with Lilian,” said the old lady; “but I don’t know whether she has decided upon anything. She seems now not to know her own mind for two minutes together.”
Gerard felt afraid that it was because she was under the control of a mind other than her own, and was silent. Lady Jennings sighed.