“Oh yes, I did; they are stronger than they look. But I was sorry afterwards that I had. Jock got among the rabbit-holes, and though I whistled and called for ten minutes, I am sure, I could not persuade him to come out.”
There was a noise as of a small object falling on the floor. Edward, who was not generally clumsy, had whisked a fork, with his coat-cuff apparently, on to the carpet. A footman picked it up, and the conversation proceeded. But Miss Ransome had caught a glimpse of her host’s face, and a cold sweat broke out inside her. Was it possible that Edward knew of her escapade? There was nothing for it but to hope for the best, and to go on boldly, since she was already too far immersed in the sea of fancy to withdraw. And besides, what she had been relating of Jock’s perversity was strictly true, only that it was post-dated by twenty-four hours, having happened yesterday.
With unconscious inhumanity, Camilla went on—
“Jock must have had two walks to-day, then, for Gillett told me she had taken him out.”
Bonnybell’s heart quailed. Suppose that Camilla next inquired at what hour her promenade with Jock had taken place, and that she herself in answer hit upon the same one as that already claimed by the maid?
“It must have been in the morning, then, that you took him out,” continued Camilla, still perfectly unsuspicious, adding, with a sternness that was more affected than real, “You must have given him time that was filched from your reading.”
“He looked so wistful,” replied Bonnybell, post-dating Jock’s expression of emotion, as she had done his iniquities. “It is so difficult to resist him when he looks wistful.”
This was a thrust directed at the one weak spot in Camilla’s armour, and it penetrated at once.
“What a bad dog!” she said, in a ridiculously pseudo-angry voice. How different, as Bonnybell ruefully reflected, from that employed to herself, for the far smaller crime of her attempt to educate Meg Aylmer! “No biscuits to-night.”
In the execution of this threat Jock did not even affect credulity, but wagged a short black tail, which was in piquant contrast to the rest of his white body, and Bonnybell heaved her slender shoulders in a deep inspiration of relief, once again involuntarily stealing a look at Edward. She found him looking straight and full back at her, in the security of Camilla’s occupation with the dog; read in that look that he knew; that since he had promised her his friendship he would not betray her, and that he despised her from the bottom of his heart. In point of fact, Edward was not much in the habit of despising any one but himself, but he might have made an exception in Bonnybell’s favour.