‘I was wondering if it can be possible that you have not heard how things stand with me. I was at Willowmere this forenoon, seeking you, and was told that you had gone to see Mr Shield, intending also to call on me. Has he said nothing to you about the letter I sent to him last night? I was obliged to write, because he persists in refusing to listen to any explanations from me in person. Has he said nothing about it?’
Madge hesitated. She was in a most unpleasant position. She had hoped to be able to come gleefully to him with the good news that the reconciliation between his father and uncle had been effected, and she was disappointed. Her proofs of Mr Hadleigh’s innocence of all complicity in Austin Shield’s misfortunes had not been accepted in the way she had expected. As regarded Philip, she had been assured that he was safe so long as she kept her promise to Mr Beecham. So she could neither give him the good news she had been so confident of bringing to him, nor sympathise fully with his anticipations of absolute ruin. That was what rendered her manner peculiar, and in his present vision, ungracious.
‘I have been told that you are harassed by the way things have been going, and that there have been mistakes somewhere. But I heard nothing about your letter.’
‘And yet you have been with him and Mr Beecham all day!’
She did change colour at the mention of Beecham’s name, the blood flushing her cheeks, and then as suddenly fading from them. His over-wrought nerves rendered him sensitive to the slightest change of voice, look, or manner.
‘Yes,’ she replied at length steadily; ‘I have been with them a long time to-day, and they spoke a great deal about you, for they are both your friends.’
‘No doubt, no doubt. Beecham has no reason to be otherwise; and Mr Shield has acted as my friend until now, when he leaves me in this horrible suspense.’
‘But it must be because he is considering what is best to be done for you.’
‘Did he tell you that?’
‘He did not say it exactly in those words; but I understood it from what he did say and from his whole manner in speaking of you.’