A quick sharp glance came her way now.
"What have you seen?"
"That is just what I do not know whether I ought to tell you. I thought, perhaps it would be the best way for me to go where I could not see it."
"Why?" said Mrs. Mowbray dryly.
"Then I should not be sharing the wrong. I suppose, more than that is not my affair. I am afraid it would be troublesome to move me."
"Any change is troublesome in a house like this," the lady answered; and Rotha stood still, not knowing how to go on. Mrs. Mowbray stepped up on the library steps to arrange some books on the upper shelves; and till she came down she did not speak again.
"You are quite right to mention no names and give no stories," she said then. "I always doubt an informer. And you are quite right also in refusing to countenance what is wrong. I will give you another room, my dear." She took Rotha in her arms and kissed her repeatedly. "Have I found a friend?" she said.
"You, madame?" said Rotha. "I cannot do anything for you; but you have done everything for me."
"You can give me love and truth that is all we any of us can give to one another, isn't it? The ways of shewing may be different.—Where are you going to spend the holidays?" she said with a change of tone.
"I don't know, madame. I have not thought about it."