‘My dears!’ She sprang up to greet them. ‘We’ve been wondering what had come to you.’
Mark explained, asked a few questions, backed casually towards the door—and vanished, leaving the women alone.
Bel had resolved that there should be neither awkwardness nor hesitation. Already she had rehearsed the little scene half a dozen times; and as the door closed, she turned to the small, upright figure near the piano, both hands flung out.
‘Dear Lady Forsyth, you are going to forgive me, aren’t you? I know I don’t deserve it. But Mark has been so beautifully generous⸺’
‘That is easier for him than for his mother,’ Lady Forsyth rejoined with her disconcerting frankness: but her smile made partial atonement and she took the proffered hands. ‘Not that I’m belittling Mark’s generosity. It takes a just man to be generous even in exasperating circumstances; and Mark possesses that rare quality in a high degree. He particularly wants us all to make light of the whole matter; and—to please him, Bel, I can at least condone what I can’t pretend to understand.’
This—as may be supposed—was not precisely the cue Bel had prepared for herself. But she had the adaptability of the born actress; and she recognised that Lady Forsyth had paid her the embarrassing compliment of speaking her mind as to a daughter.
‘That’s rather a crushing form of forgiveness!’ she said, with the pretty droop of her lips. ‘And I don’t suppose it’s much use trying to explain....’
‘Not the slightest, my dear.’ Lady Forsyth’s tone was brisk but kindly. ‘Facts, like beauty, are best left unadorned. I take it for granted you must have been very much upset to hurt a brave man so unnecessarily. Had your refusal been final, I could have better understood.’
The girl flinched at that and bit her lip. ‘You don’t sound much like forgiving me. And I don’t think,’ she made bold to add, ‘that Mark would be quite pleased if he heard you.’
‘He would probably bite my head off,’ Lady Forsyth answered, taking the wind out of her sails. ‘And if you want to make him angry with me, you can tell him what I have said. I should say just the same if he were present. Mark and I are in complete accord, however much we squabble. He knows my bark is worse than my bite: and you’ll soon know it too, Bel. So don’t let’s write in brass what is meant to be writ in water. We shall gain nothing by making Mark our apple of discord. He’s a very large apple, big enough for two! Now, after that, let me “behave” and show you to your room. Later on, you must see over the dear old house.’