“Sally Royston!” he interrupted. “ Sally Royston! It needed only that, by God! The vulgarest hoyden — the most shameless baggage — ”
“Sherry, no! Oh no, no, how can this be so? I have met her at the most exclusive houses, indeed, I have!”
“So you have met Lady Maria Berwick at the most exclusive houses, and a score of others! Do you desire to model your conduct upon theirs? Good God, will nothing teach you?”
She was trembling. “Sherry, if I have done wrong I am very sorry, but how could I guess? Lady Fakenham saw no harm — ”
“ What? She knows of this, and did nothing to put a stop to it?”
“No, oh no! She is in the country still. But at Fakenham Manor, when I beat Lady Fairford — Sherry, you were pleased! You said you were proud of me!”
He stared at her. “That! A private sport, amongst friends, under my aunt’s eye! What has that to say to anything? How could you suppose it comparable to a public race at Epsom, of all places, with the whole world free to bet on it, and every Tom, Dick, and Harry to watch it? I think you must be mad indeed!”
She pressed her hands to her cheeks. “I didn’t think — I didn’t know — Oh, Sherry, don’t be angry with me!”
“Not angry with you! When you fall from one scrape into another, disgracing yourself, and me, and — You say you did not know! Did not your cousin tell you? Did she not come here expressly to warn you that you must on no account do such a thing?”
“Yes,” Hero gasped. “But I did not heed her, for she said such stupid things, and you told me she was nothing but a dowd! I thought she was just — ”