A moment’s pause, and then Harriet Roe flung back her mantle again, defiance upon her face, and touched the chain with her hand.
“That’s what it is, Mrs. Lease: a gold chain. And a very pretty one, too.”
“Was it your mother’s?”
“It was never anybody’s but mine. I had it made a present to me this afternoon; for a keepsake.”
Happening to look at Maria, I was startled at her face, it was so white and dark: white with emotion, dark with an angry despair that I for one did not comprehend. Harriet Roe, throwing at her a look of saucy triumph, went out with as little ceremony as she had come in, just calling back a general good night; and we heard her footsteps outside getting gradually fainter in the distance. Daniel Ferrar rose.
“I’ll take my departure too, I think. You are very unsociable to-night, Maria.”
“Perhaps I am. Perhaps I have cause to be.”
She flung his hand back when he held it out; and in another moment, as if a thought struck her, ran after him into the passage to speak. I, standing near the door in the small room, caught the words.
“I must have an explanation with you, Daniel Ferrar. Now. To-night. We cannot go on thus for a single hour longer.”
“Not to-night, Maria; I have no time to spare. And I don’t know what you mean.”