"Is there any reason which makes this an inconvenient day for me to be here?" Rotha asked before moving to obey this command.
"It makes no difference. The proper time for putting such a question, if you want to do things gracefully, is before taking your action, while the answer can also be given gracefully, if unfavourable."
Rotha went slowly up stairs, feeling that or any other place in the house better than the room where her aunt was. She went to her little cold, cheerless, desolate-looking, old room. How she had suffered there! how thankful she was to be in it no more! how changed were her circumstances! Could she not be good and keep the peace, this one day? She had purposed to be very good, and calm, like Mr. Digby; and now already she felt as if a bunch of nettles had been drawn all over her. What an unmanageable thing was this temper of hers. She went down stairs slowly and lingeringly. The two looked at her again as she entered the room; now that her cloak was off, the new dress came into view.
"Where did you get that dress, Rotha?" was her aunt's question.
"Mrs. Mowbray got it for me."
"Does she propose to send me the bill by and by?"
"Of course not! Aunt Serena, Mrs. Mowbray never does mean things."
"H'm! What induced her then to go to such expense for a girl she never saw before?"
"I suppose she was sorry for me," said Rotha, with her heart swelling.
"Sorry for you! May I ask, why?"