‘Who’s been letting Freeman loose? He’s running about the garden.’
The dog furnished a topic for a few minutes’ conversation, then there was all but unbroken silence to the end of the meal. Richard’s face expressed nothing in particular, unless it were a bad night. Rodman kept up his smile, and, eating little himself, devoted himself to polite waiting upon Adela. When he rose from the table, Richard said to his brother—
‘You’ll go down as usual. I shall be at the office in half-an-hour.’
Adela presently went to the drawing-room. She was surprised to find Alice sitting there. Mrs. Rodman had clearly not enjoyed the unbroken rest which gave Adela her appearance of freshness and calm; her eyes were swollen and red, her lips hung like those of a fretful child that has tired itself with sobbing, her hair was carelessly rolled up, her attire slatternly. She sat in sullen disorder. Seeing Adela, she dropped her eyes, and her lips drew themselves together. Adela hesitated to approach her, but was moved to do so by sheer pity.
‘I’m afraid you’ve had a bad night,’ she said kindly.
‘Yes, I suppose I have,’ was the ungracious reply.
Adela stood before her for a moment, but could find nothing else to say. She was turning when Alice looked up, her red eyes almost glaring, her breast shaken with uncontrollable passion.
‘I think you might have had some consideration,’ she exclaimed. ‘If you didn’t care to speak a word for yourself, you might have thought about others. What are we to do, I. should like to know?’
Adela was struck with consternation. She had been prepared for petulant bewailing, but a vehement outburst of this kind was the last thing she could have foreseen, above all to have it directed against herself.
‘What do you mean, Alice?’ she said with pained surprise.