“Oh, to the Priory? I think I’d rather not. You see I feel so miserable, and as if I were guilty of—of——”
“Hush! That is absurd. If you come with us, there will be no question that it will be best for you as well as for Caryl. And it will show that her people understand. Now will you come?”
Still feeling as if she were held guilty by the boy’s father, Rhoda glanced towards him.
“If Sir Robert agrees, I’ll go,” said she.
The marchioness went over to him and they exchanged a few words. Then Lady Eridge came back.
“He agrees with me that nothing could be better. And he thinks that you had better both come at once. Of course you had better be near at hand, for there will be questions to answer, since the terrible affair happened in your room. And you will be near enough at the Priory.”
It was settled at once. Within an hour little Caryl had been removed to his couch on wheels, and wrapped up carefully, was on his way to the Priory, in the company of Rhoda, his grandmother, and one of his aunts.
Rhoda took care not to meet Sir Robert before leaving the house. She could not face those cold looks of his again. And it was with a very heavy heart, and a sense that, in spite of her utmost efforts, she had lost a dear friend, that she left the Mill-house for a second time.
CHAPTER XX AND LAST.
SIR ROBERT’S SECRET
Safely housed at the Priory, Rhoda escaped much of the terrible anxiety and distress which reigned at the Mill-house during the next few days.