Mrs. Beale could not speak, but she stroked his head once or twice in acknowledgment of his great kindness. Then more tears came because he was so very kind; and finally she was obliged to go to her own room to recover herself.
As the day wore on, however, she became reassured. Edith seemed much refreshed by her sleep, and, in the afternoon when the three ladies came from the castle to call upon her, bringing Angelica with them, she quite roused up.
"What, Angelica a grown up young lady in a long dress!" she exclaimed.
"But where is Diavolo?"
"We had a slight difference of opinion this morning," Angelica answered stiffly.
"Dear me! that is a new thing!" Mrs. Beale commented.
"No, it is not," Angelica contradicted, bridling visibly. "Only, when we were younger we used to—settle our differences—at once, and have done with them. But now that I am in long dresses Diavolo won't do that, so we have to sulk like married people."
"But, my dear child, I don't see why you should quarrel at all," Mrs.
Beale remonstrated.
"You would if you were with us, I expect," Angelica answered, and then she turned her attention to Edith, but not by a sign did she betray, the slightest consciousness of the latter's disfigurement—unless making herself unusually agreeable was a symptom of commiseration; and in this she succeeded so thoroughly that when the others rose to go Edith did not feel inclined to part with her.
"Won't you stay with me here a few days?" she entreated.
Angelica reflected. "It would do him good, I should think," she said at last.