"This is a strange place for you, Jasper," said she, in slow, cold accents.
"I don't see why, madam," he answered, in a voice equally cold.
"I find you—a young gentleman—conferring with a servant."
"With a trusted servant, who has been in our family for years. Nothing could be more natural."
"I don't agree with you," said Mrs. Kent, in a chilly tone.
"I am unfortunate in not winning your approbation," said Jasper, not caring to suppress the sarcasm.
"It strikes me you are impertinent," said Mrs. Kent.
She had thrown off the mask. During her husband's life she had taken special pains to be polite to Jasper, though in so doing she did violence to her feelings. There was no more to be gained by it, and she had changed suddenly. Jasper could not help alluding to it.
"How happens it, madam," he said, "that your treatment of me has changed so entirely since my father's death? Brief as the interval is, you have lost no time."
There was hatred in the glance she shot at him.