"If I do not prosecute you, Benjamin Carr," resumed Mrs. Dundyke, "you owe it partly to my consideration for your family, partly to the unhappy fact that it could not bring my poor husband back to life. It could not restore to him the mental power he lost, the faculties that were destroyed. It could not bring back to me my lost happiness. How far you may have been guilty, I know not. It must rest with your conscience, and so shall your punishment."
He stood something like a stag at bay—half doubting whether to slink away, whether to turn and beard his pursuers. Barbara Fauntleroy threw wide the door.
"You had better quit us, I think, Mr. Carr."
"I see what it is," said he, at length, to the Miss Fauntleroys. "You are just now too prejudiced to listen to reason. The tale that woman has been telling you of me is a mistaken one; and when you are calm, I will endeavour to convince you of it."
"Calm, man!" cried Barbara, with a laugh. "I'm calm enough. It isn't such an interlude, as this, that could take any calmness away from me. It has been as good to me as a scene at the play."
But the gentleman did not wait to hear the conclusion. He had escaped through the open door. Those left stared at one another.
"Come along," said Lizzie, with unruffled composure; "don't let the dinner get colder than it is. I dare say I'm well rid of him. Where's our glasses of champagne? A drop will do us all good. Oh dear, Mrs. Dundyke! Pray don't suffer it to trouble you!"
She had sat down in a far corner, poor woman, with her face hidden, drowned in a storm of silent tears.
The event, quickly though it had transpired—over, as it were, in a moment—exercised a powerful influence on the spirits of Mrs. Dundyke. It brought the old trouble so vividly before her, that she could not rally again as the days went on; and she told Mildred that she should go back to London, but would come to her again at a future time. The resolution was a sudden one. Mrs. Arkell happened to call the same day, and was told of it.
"Going back to London to-morrow!" repeated Mrs. Arkell in consternation; and she hastened to her sister's room.