Gerald stood, his foot on the fender, his brow contracted. His state of mind was most unenviable. He had formed this plan for the securing of Virginia's freedom; and that they should spend the night out had seemed a necessary part of the programme.
But anything like this had been far from his thoughts. How could he have been such an ass as to allow himself to miss that train? Had they caught it, all would have been well. He knew it was due at Petworth just late enough to make it certain that they would miss the last train. Then they would have been safe in the warmth and comfort of a first-rate inn. The worst aspect of it all was that to Virginia, to whom nothing could be explained, he must seem merely a hopeless bungler, a person unable to manage a simple expedition like this.
"Need I say," he began, after a longish silence, "that I am repenting in dust and ashes? I am so sorry for such an atrocious muddle. What can I do to help you through with it? Draw your chair close to the fire. Might I be privileged to take off your shoes?"
"No, thanks, I will do that when I get upstairs," said Virginia wearily. "I don't feel inclined to sit up."
"But the car may turn up at any moment," he urged, hating himself for his deceit.
"Why, so it may; we could get home then," she replied, with a dawning of hope. "You see, I have to travel to-morrow; it is so inconvenient for me to be detained, that is why I am so grumpy!"
He renewed his apologies, and she asked him to talk about something else. He made a hesitating attempt to revert to the key in which they had conversed at Bignor; but obtained no response from her. At last, after another long silence, he could bear it no longer, but went down on his knees beside her, and cried impulsively: "Virgie, you must forgive me! Don't be so unhappy, dear!"
She had been lost in the mazes of her own thoughts, which wandered always to Gaunt and her return to Omberleigh. She turned to Rosenberg with a start, and said hurriedly: "Oh, don't! What are you talking of? Get up, those people might come in."
The words were hasty, the tone so void of all warmth, all friendliness, that it froze the genial current of his soul into something like consternation. If the result of his escapade was to be that Virgie took a dislike to him, things were indeed hopeless. She rose, and picked up her steaming shoes.
"Good night! I am going upstairs to lie down. If the car comes, you must call me."