There was a significant pause. “And your mission,” said Hadria at length, “is to recapture the lost bird.”
“We are considering your own good,” murmured Miss Temperley.
“If I have not always done what I ought to have done in my life, it is not for want of guidance and advice from others,” said Hadria with a smile and a sigh.
“You are giving everyone so much pain, Hadria. Do you never think of that?”
There was another long pause. The two women sat opposite one another. Miss Temperley’s eyes were bent on the carpet; Hadria’s on a patch of blue sky that could be seen through a side street, opposite.
“If you would use your ability on behalf of your sex instead of against it, Henriette, women would have cause to bless you, for all time!”
“Ah! if you did but know it, I am using what ability I have on their behalf,” Miss Temperley replied. “I am trying to keep them true to their noble mission. But I did not come to discuss general questions. I came to appeal to your best self, Hadria.”
“I am ready,” said Hadria. “Only, before you start, I want you to remember clearly what took place at Dunaghee before my marriage; for I foresee that our disagreement will chiefly hang upon your lapse of memory on that point, and upon my perhaps inconveniently distinct recollection of those events.”
“I wish to lay before you certain facts and certain results of your present conduct,” said Henriette.
“Very good. I wish to lay before you certain facts and certain results of your past conduct.”