A dreary voice, hardly recognisable, answered her:
“In a few hours I have lost my house, my people, and my daughter.”
V
Cicely fell on her knees beside her.
“Not your daughter!” she exclaimed passionately.
Lady Selina opened her eyes at the touch of Cicely’s hands. Something of the girl’s determination may have flowed to her. Possibly, too, the presence of Grimshaw hardened her, although, deliberately, she ignored him. Her strength returned, the energy which she had never frittered away during a long, tranquil life.
“Is your mind really made up, Cicely? Is it?”
“Yes.”
The firmness of tone was sufficiently convincing.
“You wish to marry a man who is against me, who sides with my enemies?”