‘Are you better?’ said Ethelberta to Christopher.

‘Quite well—­quite,’ he said, smiling faintly.  ’I am glad to see you.  I must, I think, go into the next room now.’  He bowed and walked out awkwardly.

‘Are you better, too?’ she said to Picotee.

‘Quite well,’ said Picotee.

‘You are quite sure you know between whom the love lies now—­eh?’ Ethelberta asked in a sarcastic whisper of Lord Mountclere.

‘I am—­beyond a doubt,’ murmured the anxious nobleman; he feared that look of hers, which was not less dominant than irresistible.

Some additional moments given to thought on the circumstances rendered Ethelberta still more indignant and intractable.  She went out at the door by which they had entered, along the passage, and down the stairs.  A shuffling footstep followed, but she did not turn her head.  When they reached the bottom of the stairs the carriage had gone, their exit not being expected till two hours later.  Ethelberta, nothing daunted, swept along the pavement and down the street in a turbulent prance, Lord Mountclere trotting behind with a jowl reduced to a mere nothing by his concern at the discourtesy into which he had been lured by jealous whisperings.

’My dearest—­forgive me; I confess I doubted you—­but I was beside myself,’ came to her ears from over her shoulder.  But Ethelberta walked on as before.

Lord Mountclere sighed like a poet over a ledger.  ’An old man—­who is not very old—­naturally torments himself with fears of losing—­no, no—­it was an innocent jest of mine—­you will forgive a joke—­hee-hee?’ he said again, on getting no reply.

‘You had no right to mistrust me!’

’I do not—­you did not blench.  You should have told me before that it was your sister and not yourself who was entangled with him.’

‘You brought me to Melchester on purpose to confront him!’

‘Yes, I did.’

‘Are you not ashamed?’

’I am satisfied.  It is better to know the truth by any means than to die of suspense; better for us both—­surely you see that?’

They had by this time got to the end of a long street, and into a deserted side road by which the station could be indirectly reached.  Picotee appeared in the distance as a mere distracted speck of girlhood, following them because not knowing what else to do in her sickness of body and mind.  Once out of sight here, Ethelberta began to cry.

‘Ethelberta,’ said Lord Mountclere, in an agony of trouble, ’don’t be vexed!  It was an inconsiderate trick—­I own it.  Do what you will, but do not desert me now!  I could not bear it—­you would kill me if you were to leave me.  Anything, but be mine.’

Ethelberta continued her way, and drying her eyes entered the station, where, on searching the time-tables, she found there would be no train for Anglebury for the next two hours.  Then more slowly she turned towards the town again, meeting Picotee and keeping in her company.