Miss Chressham leant back in her chair. Though it was early spring a fire burnt between the brass and irons, and cast a red glow over the shining folds of her grey dress.
The Earl, in gold and scarlet riding dress, sat easily on the brocade settee and looked, rather curiously, at his cousin.
"I have to speak of painful things," said Miss Chressham; "but I can be silent no longer. I have been waiting——"
"For me?" asked my lord.
"For you!" Susannah picked up a drawn-silk hand-screen and held it between her face and the fire; incidentally it concealed her from the Earl's observation.
"Rose," she said very gravely, "you have been free nine months, and everything goes on exactly the same."
His handsome face was expressionless.
"Why not, my dear?" he asked.
"Do you not understand me?" she returned. "But no, it is I who do not understand and you who must explain."