“Even that is very hard,” murmured Madge. “If—if—Oh! I’m afraid I haven’t the courage, after all.”
“I’ll be glad to do anything I can.”
“It’s—well—Oh, dear, I can’t. Let’s walk a little, while I think how to put it.”
They began to walk, which took a weight off my mind, as I had been forced to hear every word thus far spoken, and was dreading what might follow, since I was perfectly helpless to warn them. The platform was built around the station, and in a moment they were out of hearing.
Before many seconds were over, however, they had walked round the building, and I heard Lord Ralles say,—
“You really don’t mean that he’s insulted you?”
“That is just what I do mean,” cried Madge, indignantly. “It’s been almost past endurance. I haven’t dared to tell any one, but he had the cruelty, the meanness, on Hance’s trail to threaten that—”
At that point the walkers turned the corner again, and I could not hear the rest of the sentence. But I had heard more than enough to make me grow hot with mortification, even while I could hardly believe I had understood aright. Madge had been so kind to me lately that I couldn’t think she had been feeling as bitterly as she spoke. That such an apparently frank girl was a consummate actress wasn’t to be thought, and yet—I remembered how well she had played her part on Hance’s trail; but even that wouldn’t convince me. Proof of her duplicity came quickly enough, for, while I was still thinking, the walkers were round again, and Lord Ralles was saying,—
“Why haven’t you complained to your father or brothers?”
“Because I knew they would resent his conduct to me, and—”