'But why worry yourself about things that can never be, dear Jassie?' said her mother. 'We were going to tell you—even your Aunt Alison does not know yet—that it is all decided, and oh, I am so thankful that the long separation is over at last. Your father wrote yesterday to accept the Barmettle appointment.'
Jacinth grew scarlet, then very, very pale.
'Mamma,' she exclaimed, and the low repression in her tone was more unnatural—more alarming, I had almost said—in one so young, than any even violent ebullition of temper. 'Mamma, it can't be true. You are saying it to tease me. You—you and papa would never have settled it without telling me, without consulting Lady Myrtle, after all her goodness?'
'No,' replied Mrs Mildmay, arming herself for the contest by a resolute determination not to lose her self-control, however it might be tried; 'no, though a little reflection would show you that you should have more trust in your parents, dear Jacinth; it was not done without consulting our kind old friend. And however she may regret it, I know she respects your father's decision.'
Jacinth looked up eagerly; a reaction of hope came over her.
'Mamma,' she said breathlessly, 'believe me, I don't mean to be either disrespectful or distrustful, but did Lady Myrtle say nothing against it? Is she perhaps going to do so when—when she has thought everything over?'
'She did say everything she could; she did use the strongest arguments she had: but she could not but see that your father's motives were right, and so she saw it must be as he said,' replied Mrs Mildmay.
A harder look crept over Jacinth's face; the eager, almost nervous, anxiety died out of it.
'There is something about all this that I do not understand,' she said. 'Unless you and papa mean to treat me as a baby, I think I have a right to know. I think Lady Myrtle would say so.'
Mrs Mildmay felt much perplexed. Any approach to diplomacy, anything but perfect candour and frankness, was so foreign to her nature, that it was difficult for her not at once to speak out and explain the whole. But then, if she did so, she might be only sowing seeds of future bitterness. It was improbable, to say the least, that Jacinth had realised in any definite way Lady Myrtle's intentions with regard to her, seeing that the old lady had not announced them to her.