To this he did not reply, but remarked, “I am sorry he annoyed you, ma’am.”
“It is not the annoyance to me; it is the shocking, the unmanly insolence to a lady, and a foreign lady.”
“That’s a matter between him and Nevil. I uphold him.”
“Then, my lord, I am silent.”
Silent she remained; but Lord Romfrey was also silent: and silence being a weapon of offence only when it is practised by one out of two, she had to reflect whether in speaking no further she had finished her business.
“Captain Baskelett stays at the Castle?” she asked.
“He likes his quarters there.”
“Nevil could not go down to Romfrey, my lord. He was obliged to wait, and see, and help me to entertain, her brother and her husband.”
“Why, ma’am? But I have no objection to his making the marquis a happy husband.”
“He has done what few men would have done, that she may be a self-respecting wife.”