"Because I am afraid of hating her," she said; "I wish to like her before I am lured into loathing her."
She pulled two roses from the stem, never heeding the thorns, and gazed intently at them.
"I think you take it over heavily," replied Marius with a judicial air. "Rose was bound to marry and to marry a fortune—he would scarcely have made a love match." Marius was boyishly pompous. "We hear the lady has qualities, is as desirable as another lady with a hundred thousand pounds, and I cannot think Rose would ever let his wife interfere with him."
Susannah's eyes flashed over the gorgeous blooms she held to her lips.
"And you will supply sentiment for two; well, no doubt I am foolishly romantical."
But the words were a mere dismissal of a subject she disdained to discuss with one who would not understand.
"I think we might go now," she added; "surely it is time?"
"The moments have been vastly swift!" He glanced at his watch. "Yes, they are due—shall I go straight to the lodge?"
"Had you not better? My lady awaits them in the withdrawing-room. She thinks of her own home-coming, I know—a triumphal arch, villagers lining the road with flowers—and regrets this for Rose; but his commands were stern."
Miss Chressham spoke rapidly. Her restless eyes and fluttering lashes showed agitation. As Marius parted from her by the lake she laughed nervously, and waved her hand to the careless youthful figure hurrying through the shrubbery.