She rushed upstairs to her room and flung herself across the bed, burying her face in the pillow in an agony of humiliation.
‘What a fool I am! What a miserable fool! To be afraid of that wretched booby! How can I ever hope to rule these people if I show the white feather at the outset? Now, of course, they will think that they’ve only got to bully me and I shall at once give in. Oh, fool, fool! To give way to silly womanish fears at such a moment! Oh, oh! how shall I ever look them in the face?’
She continued to roll her head on the pillow for some moments; her cheeks had now become burning, and her heart still beat fast, no longer with terror, but with anger. By-and-by she sat up, pushed back her hair, and shook out the folds of her dress.
‘After all, ’t is never too late to mend,’ she said to herself.
She went downstairs, and into the dairy, directing her maids somewhat sharply, and setting about her own work with flushed cheeks and a serious face. In course of time her agitation subsided, and after her solitary breakfast she was quite herself again.
At noon, as she passed through the kitchen to the parlour, she chanced to glance through the open door, and observed that the men had gathered together in the yard, and were eagerly talking instead of making their way homewards, or retiring to the barn to eat their dinners. She feigned to pay no attention to them, however, and walked on to her own quarters.
Presently she became aware that the whole body was advancing towards the house, and a moment later Susan thrust in her round face at the door.
‘Please, mum, the men be wishin’ to speak a few words with ’ee.’
‘Very well,’ said Rosalie, ‘I will go out to them.’
On reaching the threshold of the outer door she paused, looking round on the group, and waiting for them to take the initiative. Job was, as before, the first to speak.