"It is difficult to know what is right sometimes," she said, thoughtfully. "I never could tell an untruth, and sometimes telling the truth does not make things smooth. Grace, my darling, I married Mr. Drayton to give you a home and comforts you so sorely needed. He knows it was only for that, and he resents it, and he will never let me have you, never."
She sobbed, and she was not given to tears.
Grace stared at her in stupefied astonishment.
"You do not mean to say that you let him find this out?"
"No, I told him. I told him before I married him. How could I act a lie?"
"And he married you after this frank explanation, and now turns round upon you! How like a man!" and Grace, who had a most limited acquaintance herself with any men, looked supremely scornful. "Well, my dear Margaret, I shall not go with you, but I shall follow you."
"But Grace, darling——"
"But Margaret, darling. I will not hear a single word. I shall choose my own time and arrive in my own way—but go I will."
She laughed Margaret's scruples to scorn and turned the subject.
Grace was so gay and bright, so overflowing with good-humour, that all the inmates of Renton Place were taken by surprise, save and except Jean, who answered Mrs. Dorriman's expression of satisfaction by one short sentence,