“I suppose you wish to go abroad, May?”
“You know I have always wished to go.”
“So do I.”
“I wish you were going too,” said I, timidly.
“Thank you. My views upon the subject are quite different. When I go abroad I shall go in a different capacity to that you are going to assume. I will let you know all about it in due time.”
“Very well,” said I, almost inaudibly, having a vague idea as to what she meant, but determined not to speak about it.
The following day the curtain rose upon the first act of the play—call it drama, comedy, tragedy, what you will—which was to be played in my absence. I had been up the village to the post-office, and was returning, when I saw advancing toward me two figures which I had cause to remember—my sister’s queenly height, her white hat over her eyes, and her sunshade in her hand, and beside her the pale face, with its ragged eyebrows and hateful sneer, of Sir Peter Le Marchant.
Adelaide, not at all embarrassed by his company, was smiling slightly, and her eyes with drooped lids glanced downward toward the baronet. I shrunk into a cottage to avoid them as they came past, and waited. Adelaide was saying:
“Proud—yes, I am proud, I suppose. Too proud, at least, to—”