'I want to know one thing first. Have you seen Mr. Egremont?'
'I haven't spoken to him since that night when I said good-bye to him by the river. Can't you believe me?'
'I don't think you'd tell me an untruth.'
'If I'd spoken to him, Lyddy, I'd tell you at once; I would! I'd tell you everything!'
'I must say what I mean, Thyrza; it's no good doing anything else. Tell me this: does Mrs. Ormonde want you to marry him?'
Thyrza laughed strangely. Then she exclaimed:
'She doesn't! She wouldn't hear of such a thing, not for the world! She wants to be kind to me in her own way, but not that; not that! How you distrust me! Are you against me, then? What are you thinking about? I hoped you would be kind to me in everything. You don't look like my Lyddy now.'
'It's because I don't understand you,' said the other, in a subdued voice, her eyes on the ground. 'You're not open with me, Thyrza. If it's true that Mrs. Ormonde thinks in that way, why do you—'
She broke off.
'I can't talk about it! It's very hard to bear. We shall never be what we were to each other, Thyrza. Something's come between us, and it always will be between us. You must take your own way, dear. Yes, I promise, and there's an end of it.'