She wondered if he had heard her last words: she fancied he had. He took hold of her shaking little hand, and looked down at her excited face.
"I am glad I waited for you," he said, in the quietest possible tone. "Something is the matter."
She knew there would be no use in trying to conceal the truth, and she was not in the mood to make the effort. She scarcely knew herself.
She gave quite a fierce little laugh.
"I am angry!" she said. "You have never seen me angry before. I am on my way to my—to Lady Theobald."
He held her hand as calmly as before. He understood a great deal more than she could have imagined.
"What are you going to say to her?" he asked. She laughed again.
"I am going to ask her what she means. I am going to tell her she has made a mistake. I am going to prove to her that I am not such a coward, after all. I am going to tell her that I dare disobey her,—that is what I am going to say to her," she concluded decisively.
He held her hand rather closer.
"Let us take a stroll in the copse, and talk it over," he said. "It is deliciously cool there."