Lady Sarah looked frankly and boldly into her eyes.
“Forgiving! What has he to forgive?” she asked, as if in all innocence.
Rhoda was so much astonished at this retort that it was some moments before she could reply. When she had collected her thoughts, she said straightforwardly:
“You tried to run away. And he has forgiven that.”
“Well, it was his wish that I should stay, wasn’t it? Then he is right to be glad. It is I who am sorry, for I wanted to go.”
The coolness with which she spoke frightened Rhoda for a moment. But then the absurdity of the situation suddenly struck her, after her realisation of its tragedy, and she could scarcely help laughing.
“It’s of no use to argue with you, Lady Sarah,” she said with a sigh.
“Not the least in the world. You see, too, that I’m in the right. Sir Robert, for what reason I don’t know, wants to keep me here against my will, wants to travel with me, when he knows he’ll hate it as much as I shall. Well, he has succeeded in getting his own way, and I haven’t got mine. Why am I expected to be grateful then? It is he who ought to be grateful. But it is silly of him to show his gratitude by insisting upon buying me a lot of things I don’t want.”
Rhoda said no more, and Lady Sarah, thankful at any rate to be freed from the society of her husband, condescended to be very charming for the rest of the evening.
But there was now a new feature in her conduct which filled every one with dismay. She was civil to every one, lively and bright with Minnie and even with Rhoda, but towards Sir Robert she now maintained a demeanour of cold reserve which was disconcerting in the extreme.