Autumn being now well advanced, there was a discussion as to what should become of the usual holiday at the Riviera, and in the end it was abandoned by Lady Eridge, who decided to remain at the Priory. There Caryl was to stay also, and Lady Eridge told Rhoda that she had questioned Sir Robert about his plans, and that he had decided to shut up the Mill-house and to go abroad.
“I then suggested,” went on the marchioness, “that we should ask you to stay with Caryl, and Sir Robert agreed. But really he seems to take no interest in anything since the death of his wife.”
Rhoda was quite ready to fall in with this arrangement, and she hoped that, before going away, the baronet would, on saying good-bye, show her once more a little of his old kindness. For the remembrance of his cold looks and harsh voice when he spoke to her on the night of Lady Sarah’s death had made a wound which did not heal.
To her bitter disappointment, she was told one evening, when she returned to the Priory after a walk into the town by herself, that Sir Robert had called in her absence, had said good-bye to his boy, and that he would start for Egypt that very evening.
Rhoda shed hot tears at the thought that he had gone away without one word to her. She had revered him so long, had sympathised with him, done her best to keep the difficult household going during the lifetime of his wife, that she felt deeply hurt at this lack of ordinary kindness which she had had a right to expect.
It prepared her for a future in which she would find herself cut off altogether from the Mill-house and its inmates; for she did not doubt that, when he returned in the spring, Sir Robert would send for his son, and she would then get her dismissal.
Rhoda felt that Lady Eridge understood something of her feelings, for the marchioness was very kind to her, and did her best to prove that her services were appreciated.
Perhaps Caryl, young as he was, understood too that Rhoda had not been treated quite well, for he said nothing to her about the farewell interview with his father.
The winter passed quickly for all that. Rhoda and Caryl became so devoted to each other that the thought of a possible parting, which was ever present to the woman and which often occurred to the child, grew more and more painful.
But at Christmas time there occurred one incident which afforded Rhoda for the time a little consolation.