And I ran away before he could prevent me, and found Lady Mills and Mrs. Clowes in the drawing-room, the former looking anxious and grave, the latter hard and angry.
“My dear child, where have you been? We thought you were lost!” Her voice trembled.
“Oh, Lady Mills, I am so sorry! I went on the water with Mr. Carruthers. He said you would not mind; but I ought to have known better when it was so late.”
“The later the better, my dear, I should say,” said Mrs. Clowes, in her most cutting tone.
But Lady Mills’s face was lightening as she looked at me.
“Don’t you know, my dear, that Mr. Carruthers is one of the most dangerous men—”
Then she stopped, for Mr. Carruthers had come into the room; and, turning from me to him, she said, in such a stern voice that it made me tremble—
“Tom, aren’t you just a little ashamed of yourself?”
And he answered very gravely—
“Perhaps; but that doesn’t matter. This inquisition is out of place, Stephana, for it is easy to see that to that child night and day are all the same; and, if I had been my respected father in iniquity himself, she would have been none the worse for my society. It was very sensible of you to come to Lady Mills, child,” said he to me kindly.