‘I cannot go into details. Mr. Mutimer has no doubt many excellent qualities; no doubt he is really an earnest and a well-meaning man. But if I am asked to say more than that, it must be the truth—as it seems to me. Please, mother dear, don’t ask me to talk about him in future. And there is something else I wish to say. I do hope you won’t be offended with me, but indeed I—I hope you will not ask me to go to the Manor again. I feel I ought not to go. It is painful; I suffer when I am there.’
‘How strange you are to-day, Adela! Really, I think you might allow me to decide what is proper and what is not. My experience is surely the best judge. You are worse than unkind, Adela; it’s rude to speak to me like that.’
‘Dear mother,’ said the girl, with infinite gentleness, ‘I am very, very sorry. How could I be unkind or rude to you? I didn’t for a moment mean that my judgment was better than yours; it is my feelings that I speak of. You won’t ask me to explain—to say more than that? You must understand me?’
‘Oh yes, my dear, I understand you too well,’ was the stiff reply. ‘Of course I am old-fashioned, and I suppose old-fashioned people are a little coarse; their feelings are not quite as fine as they might be. We will say no more for the present, Adela. I will do my best not to lead you into disagreeable situations through my lack of delicacy.’
There were tears in Adela’s eyes.
‘Mother, now it is you who are unkind. I am so sorry that I spoke. You won’t take my words as they were meant. Must I say that I cannot let Mr. Mutimer misunderstand the way in which. I regard him? He comes here really so very often, and if we begin to go there too—. People are talking about it, indeed they are; Letty has told me so. How can I help feeling pained?’
Mrs. Waltham drew out her handkerchief and appeared mildly agitated. When Adela bent and kissed her she sighed deeply, then said in an undertone of gentle melancholy:
‘I ask your pardon, my dear. I am afraid there has been a little misunderstanding on both sides. But we won’t talk any more of it—there, there!’
By which the good lady of course meant that she would renew the subject on the very earliest opportunity, and that, on the whole, she was not discouraged. Mothers are often unaware of their daughters’ strong points, but their weaknesses they may be trusted to understand pretty well.
The little scene was just well over, and Adela had taken a seat by the window, when a gentleman who was approaching the front door saw her and raised his hat. She went very pale.