She shrank back as if she had been stung, and said, "Not for the world, John! Take me away."
He laughed at her fears, and placing the coin, together with four others on the table, held her fast by his side until the result was declared.
It was in his favour, and, sweeping up a handful of gold, he said, "I will present my winnings to you, dear. We will go now. I only wanted you to see for once how easily money is lost or won."
Kathleen did not speak, but her face was white to the lips, and as her husband tendered the gold she gave him an indignant look and passed out of the place. She felt ready to faint, yet when he again laughingly tendered the gold, she pushed his hand aside, and gasped out, "I would not touch it for the world!" then broke down and wept.
Mr. Torrance expressed his regret, and said he only meant to give her a novel experience, not to cause pain.
Kathleen was at length coaxed into outward composure, but the painful impression remained. She could not forget the fierce pleasure on her husband's face as he swept up the gold, and had since been haunted by a dread, which other circumstances had intensified during their stay in town.
"What if the old Mountford estates should be squandered through my unlimited trust in John!" she thought. "The 'slip of a girl,' as my father called me, was entrusted with all of which he was so proud. And I meant to hold them safely, yet have placed them in John's power, though he owned he could not trust himself. Alas! he spoke the truth."
Ralph came to London, expecting to be all in all with his new mother, and did not find sight-seeing, under the convoy of Sarah and a man-servant, altogether satisfactory. Kathleen did her best, and cheered him by saying—
"It will be different at Hollingsby."
She was glad the town-house must be vacated at the time first agreed on, as it was again let to new tenants.