Her eyes fell, and she seemed half to resent his persistence, as she answered:
“I am going to live on three hundred a year.”
“H’m! Do you think of living in London?”
“No; I do not think of living in London. Proceed, sir, with the cross-examination.”
“I think I have been rude enough for one day,” he returned, with a quiet smile as he rose from his chair.
She held her hand to him with the friendly grace which could repay even when it disappointed.
“Thank you, with all my heart,” she said. “Only—remember how dear independence must be to me.”
“Are you acquainted with Mr. Lyster?” Robert asked, with a transition to easier topics.
“I don’t think I know any one of that name.”
“Some one who arrived here a few minutes after I did. It seems we came in the same train.”