“You are afraid of Sir Percival Glyde?”
“Am I?”
Her colour was rising, and her hands were at work again smoothing her gown. I pressed the point farther and farther home, I went on without allowing her a moment of delay.
“Sir Percival has a high position in the world,” I said; “it would be no wonder if you were afraid of him. Sir Percival is a powerful man, a baronet, the possessor of a fine estate, the descendant of a great family——”
She amazed me beyond expression by suddenly bursting out laughing.
“Yes,” she repeated, in tones of the bitterest, steadiest contempt. “A baronet, the possessor of a fine estate, the descendant of a great family. Yes, indeed! A great family—especially by the mother’s side.”
There was no time to reflect on the words that had just escaped her, there was only time to feel that they were well worth thinking over the moment I left the house.
“I am not here to dispute with you about family questions,” I said. “I know nothing of Sir Percival’s mother——”
“And you know as little of Sir Percival himself,” she interposed sharply.
“I advise you not to be too sure of that,” I rejoined. “I know some things about him, and I suspect many more.”