“What! After the other night!”
“Yes. I don’t think she would ever have agreed to run away but for the discovery about the picture. Of course that was shocking, inexcusable, horrible. But I think it was more out of revenge upon you for thwarting her that she acted than from any real wish to rob you, and it’s a great pity she was driven to bay over it.”
“There was no help for it,” said Sir Robert.
“Well, I suppose not. But, as I say, it was a pity. She is a very difficult person to manage, and of course it puts a great humiliation upon her.”
“To be found out? Yes, of course. However, I can’t consent to her going to the Riviera, unless, indeed, she cares to let me accompany her. My object in coming to you to-day was to find out whether you can persuade her to behave reasonably. She must not travel again without me, of that I am determined. But I should wish to leave it to you to settle with her whether she would rather spend the winter here in Dourville or abroad. In any case she has to put up with the infliction of my presence.”
Lady Eridge sighed.
“Robert, I am very sorry for you,” she said. “I don’t quite know what to advise. But if I were you, I would shorten the period of keeping Jack away as much as possible. I don’t believe there would have been any harm done but for that strong action of yours in forbidding her to speak to him. Of course that made her resentful at once.”
Sir Robert, however, looked dubious.
“I thought, as you do, that there was no harm in their flirtation,” he said, “and, as you know, I have given her every indulgence. But when she prefers to run away from her home to refraining from compromising correspondence, what is one to think?”
“Think anything but the worst, and you will be right. She is fond of Jack, in her superficial way, but I don’t think it is fondness for him, so much as resentment against you, that made her want to run away.”