Pauline was slightly taken aback at this speech of Miss Merivale’s. She had not expected her to admit the truth so readily. “Miss Merivale, you must trust me,” she said in a low, eager voice. “I understand exactly why you want it to be a secret. No one shall ever know from me.”
Miss Merivale pushed her chair back, freeing herself from the touch of Pauline’s hands. A shock of repulsion had gone through her.
“It will be no secret after to-day,” she said in the same stunned, heavy voice. “I shall tell Tom this afternoon. I ought to have told him before.”
Tom came home late in the afternoon. He expected to find that his aunt and the girls had all gone to Bingley woods, and he only went to the house to change his riding boots before going to meet them. He passed through the archway in the yew hedge, marking with tender, happy eyes the exact spot where Rhoda had stood that morning while they talked together. His feet lingered a little as he went down the turf path to the house. Everything in the garden spoke to him of Rhoda, and it was in the garden he had seen her first.
He went through the open window of the library and across the hall. As he reached the foot of the stairs he was surprised to hear his aunt’s voice.
She was standing at the drawing-room door, with her hand resting heavily on the jamb. It was with difficulty she had crossed the room to call him on hearing his step. Her limbs were trembling under her.
“I thought you had all gone to Bingley woods,” Tom exclaimed. “Have the others gone?”
“Yes; I would not let them stay at home. I was feeling too tired to go.”
“You caught cold yesterday in the porch,” Tom said in a playful scolding voice. “You do want a lot of looking after, Aunt Lucy. Have you a fire? The wind is keen, though the sun is so bright. Here, let me make a better fire than this.”
He knelt down on the rug, stirring the logs into a cheerful blaze. Miss Merivale sank down on the sofa and watched him in silence. If Tom had looked attentively at her, he would have seen that her face was grey with pain. She had spent some bitter hours since Pauline had spoken to her that morning. Though she had done it for Tom’s sake, she feared that he would find it very hard to forgive her. And looking back over the last few weeks, she found it almost impossible to understand how she could have been happy for a moment while keeping such a secret from him.