"That woman!" exclaimed the daughter, starting. "Oh! I had hoped that her name would no more be mentioned in this house."
"I begged of you not to give way to excitement—I warned you to be reasonable," said Mr. Torrens severely. "Surely you can accord me your attention when I am anxious to discourse with you on matters of importance?"
"Pardon me, dearest father—and, oh! do not blame nor reproach me if I manifest a very natural irritability—a loathing—an abhorrence——"
She could say no more, but burst into a flood of tears.
Mr. Torrens suffered her to give full vent to her emotions; for he knew that the reaction would produce comparative calmness.
"Rosamond," he at length said, "you can be reasonable when you choose—and I do hope that you have sufficient confidence in your father to accord him your attention and to believe what he may state to you. Listen then—and rest assured that I should never take the part of any one against my own daughter. I have seen Mrs. Slingsby."
Rosamond gave a convulsive start; but her father, appearing not to observe it, proceeded.
"It struck me," he continued, "that she would never have had the presumption and impudence to call here this morning, if she were really as guilty as you supposed her to be. I therefore deemed it an act of justice to ascertain the nature of those explanations which she proffered in this room, and which your presence cut short. With that object in view, I proceeded to her abode; and she assured me that she was entirely innocent of any connivance in the atrocity perpetrated by Sir Henry Courtenay——"
"Innocent!" almost shrieked Rosamond. "Oh! my dear father, you know not how specious—how plausible that woman can be when she chooses; and it has suited her purpose to be so with you. But be not deceived——"
"Do you imagine that I am not old enough and sufficiently experienced to discriminate between sincerity and duplicity?" demanded Mr. Torrens. "I tell you, Rosamond, that you wrong Mrs. Slingsby—that your suspicions are most injurious! Reflect—consider before you thus condemn! You overheard a few words which immediately threw you into a state of such excitement that your imagination tortured all the subsequent discourse into an evidence of guilt on the part of a lady who is deeply attached to you—who loves you as if she were your own mother—and who will die of grief if you continue thus to misjudge her. Yes, Rosamond—Mrs. Slingsby has declared that she will put a period to her existence if you persist in your present belief! She accuses you of ingratitude towards her, after all her affectionate kindness in your behalf; and, should she carry her dreadful threat into execution—which I much fear, for she seems literally distracted—her blood will be upon your head!"