"Isn't he just a little unreasonable?"
"He is not. Is it nice for him to know that you prefer living with these people to staying in his house?"
"What would he say if he knew that one of these people lent us this room?"
The words and the smile that accompanied them challenged Edith to speak; and speak she must. But she could not bring herself to utter the abominable name. "And was that on Sophie's account or yours?"
"On both our accounts; and it was beautifully done."
"Oh, if it was done beautifully there's no doubt on whose account it was done. I should have thought you were the last person, Lucia, to put yourself under such an obligation."
"There was no obligation. It was kinder to Mr. Rickman to take his room than refuse it, that was all."
Lucia had no difficulty whatever in bringing out the name. And that, if Edith's perceptions had not been dulled by horror, would have struck her as a favourable sign.
"Young Rickman!" Edith's astonishment was a master stroke in all that it ignored and in all that it implied of the impossibility of that person. "Your notions of kindness are more than I can understand. Whatever possessed you to take his room? If he'd offered it fifty times!"
"But it wasn't wanted."