'But, father, remember… you are not going to mother.'
'No; only for a trot round the Square.'
She pressed her hand to her forehead; she felt her eyes, they were dry and burning; and it was not until the servant announced Father White that her tears flowed.
VI.
'Then you've heard,' said Agnes, coming forward and taking the priest's hand. 'How did you hear? Did you meet father?'
'No, my dear child, I've heard nothing. I did not meet your father. I was in London to-day for the first time since I last saw you. I ought to have called earlier, but I was detained…. I'm afraid I'm late, it must be getting late. It must be getting near your dinner hour.'
'I see that you know nothing, and that I shall have to tell you all.'
'Yes, my dear child, tell me everything.' Agnes sat on the ottoman, Father White took a chair near her. 'Tell me everything. I see you've been weeping. You're not happy at home then?'
'Oh, Father; happy! if you only knew, if you only knew…. I cannot tell you.' Then seeing in the priest's arrival a means of escape from the danger of her position between her father and mother, she cried, 'You must take me back to the convent to-night. I cannot meet mother when she comes home. Something dreadful might happen. Father White, you must take me back to the convent, say that you will, say that you will.'
'My dear child, you are agitated, calm yourself. What has happened?
Tell me.'