"What I said to Lucy I believed I had perfectly good grounds for, Sir Karl. I had the interests of religion at heart when I spoke."
"Religion!" repeated Sir Karl, his lips involuntarily curling. "Religion is as religion does, Miss Blake."
"After all, she did not heed me; so, if it did no good, it did no harm. Lucy is so very weak-minded--"
"Weak-minded!" interposed Sir Karl. "If to act as she did--to bear patiently and make no stir under extreme provocation, trusting to the future to right the wrong--if this is to be weak-minded, why I thank God that she is so. Had she been strong-minded as you, Miss Blake, the result might have been terribly different."
Miss Blake was nettled. Her manner froze.
"I see what it is, Sir Karl; you and your wife are so displeased with me that I feel my presence in your house is no longer welcome. As soon as I can make arrangements I will quit it--thanking you both for your hospitality."
She paused. Sir Karl paused too. Perhaps she had a faint expectation that he would hasten to refute the decision, and request her to stay on. But he did nothing of the kind. On the contrary, he, in a word or two of politeness, acquiesced in the proposal of departure, as though it admitted of no question.
"I should not have trespassed on you so long--in fact, I should not have stayed at all after your first return here with Lady Andinnian, but for St. Jerome's," she rejoined, her temper getting up again, while there ran in her mind an undercurrent of thought, as to whether she could find suitable lodgings in Foxwood.
"You will not have to regret that, in leaving," he observed. "I am about to do away with St. Jerome's."
"To do away with St. Jerome's!"