"There is no reason, except——" and Mrs. Dorriman made a startled pause.
"Well," said Mr. Sandford, "except—pray go on—you really are very trying sometimes. What upon earth are you afraid of?"
"To marry, you must have a chance of seeing people."
Mr. Sandford reflected upon this answer, then he said—
"You do not know it, but do you know sometimes you say very sensible things."
Mrs. Dorriman smiled faintly, and left him, relieved beyond expression that nothing more had been said about Jean.
But her satisfaction did not last long. Late in the afternoon of the next day she was told a woman wished to see her, and Jean—much too ill to have left her bed—stood before her, pale, defiant, and all her spirit roused to resistance.
"The master has ordered me away," she said, "he came to-day and bid me go. He threatened and stormed!"
She was flushed and feverish. All through the cold wind of the early spring she had come, fever in her veins, and burning in her head; and now she dropped down upon a chair and shivered, looking wild, and evidently was on the verge of delirium.
The dinner-bell rang unheeded, and when Mrs. Dorriman was fetched she sent word she could not come.