“I—I mustn't tell you, mamma.”
Alicia's face betrayed this subterfuge.
“You do not know yourself, Alicia,” said the Countess incisively. “And so you need no longer pretend to be keeping a secret from me. It now becomes our joint business to discover the actual truth. Do not attempt to wrangle with me further! This investigation is necessary for your peace of mind, dear.”
The unfortunate Baroness dropped a silent tear. Her peace of mind had been serenely undisturbed till this moment, and now it was only broken by the thought of her husband's displeasure should he ever learn how she had disobeyed his injunctions. Further investigation was the very last thing to cure it, she said to herself bitterly. She looked piteously at her parent, but there she only saw an expression of concentrated purpose.
“Have you any reason, Alicia, to suspect an attachment—an affair of any kind?”
“Mamma!”
“Do not jump in that excitable manner. Think quietly. He has evidently returned to Germany for some purpose which he wishes to conceal from us: the natural supposition is that a woman is at the bottom of it.”
“Rudolph is incapable——”
“No man is incapable who is in the full possession of his faculties. I know them perfectly.”
“But, mamma, I cannot bear to think of such a thing!”