“Give the girl a week,” said her father to him. “She is not herself.”
“Very well; one week, no more,” said he.
“I have another stipulation to make,” said Beatrice, “You are all to swear to me that for that week no word of this will pass your mouths; that for that week I shall not be annoyed or interfered with, or spoken to on the subject, not by one of you. If at the end of it I still refuse to accept your terms, you can do your worst, but till then you must hold your hand.”
Owen Davies hesitated; he was suspicious.
“Remember,” Beatrice went on, raising her voice, “I am a desperate woman. I may turn at bay, and do something which you do not expect, and that will be very little to the advantage of any of you. Do you swear?”
“Yes,” said Owen Davies.
Then Beatrice looked at Elizabeth, and Elizabeth looked at her. She saw that the matter had taken a new form. She saw what her jealous folly had hitherto hidden from her—that Beatrice did not mean to marry Owen Davies, that she was merely gaining time to execute some purpose of her own. What this might be Elizabeth cared little so that it did not utterly extinguish chances that at the moment seemed faint enough. She did not want to push matters against her sister, or her lover Geoffrey, beyond the boundary of her own interests. Beatrice should have her week, and be free from all interference so far as she was concerned. She realised now that it was too late how great had been her error. Oh, if only she had sought Beatrice’s confidence at first! But it had seemed to her impossible that she would really throw away such an opportunity in life.
“Certainly I promise, Beatrice,” she said mildly. “I do not swear, for ‘swear not at all,’ you know. I only did what I thought my duty in warning Mr. Davies. If he chooses to go on with the matter, it is no affair of mine. I had no wish to hurt you, or Mr. Bingham. I acted solely from my religious convictions.”
“Oh, stop talking religion, Elizabeth, and practise it a little more!” said her father, for once in his life stirred out of his feeble selfishness. “We have all undertaken to keep our mouths sealed for this week.”
Then Beatrice left the room, and after her went Owen Davies without another word.