“No,” he said, “decidedly not. You will get on much better alone, Maddie. Off with you, there’s a good girl. And good-bye. I’m going round to the stable-yard and I’ll mount there. I’m dying with curiosity, but all the same I’m too high-principled to indulge it. It wouldn’t do for me to stay—you and Ermine are quite enough for the poor child to face at first.”
“Oh, Philip,” said Madelene, stopping short again, for by this time she had got a few yards on her way, “I thought you would have stayed to help us.”
“Not I,” Philip called after her. “It’s much better not, I assure you. I’ll look in to-morrow to see how you’re all getting on, and to hear the whole story. And if I meet Uncle Marcus on his way home, as I dare say I shall, I’ll tell him of the arrival, so as to save you having to break it to him.”
“And do beg him to come home as quickly as he can,” replied Madelene.
Philip got up from his seat and moved to go.
“Good-bye, Ermine,” he said.
Ermine looked at him dubiously.
“Are you in earnest, Philip?” she said. “I have more than half an idea that you are going off out of cowardice, and—and—that all your regard for Ella’s feelings, etc, is—”
“What?” said Philip, smiling.
“Talk,” Ermine replied curtly.