"I beg your pardon?" said Medland.
Full of anger and shame, she could not answer him. Without a shadow of excuse--she could not find a shadow of excuse--she had read into his words a meaning he never thought of. She could not now conceive how she had done it. If told the like about another, she knew how scornfully severe her judgment would have been. He had surprised her, caught her unawares, and wrung from her an open expression of a wild idea that she had refused to recognise even in her own heart. She felt that her cheeks were red. Would the glow that burnt her never go?--and she bit her lips, for she was near tears. Oh, that he might not have seen! Or had she committed the sin unpardonable to a girl such as she was? Had she betrayed herself unasked?
"Nothing," she stammered at last. "Nothing." But she felt the heat still in her cheeks. She would have given the world to be able to tell him not to look at her; but she knew his puzzled eyes still sought hers, in hope of light.
He might at least say something! Silently he walked by her side along the road to Government House--that endless, endless road. She could not speak--and he--she only knew that he did not. She felt, by a subtle perception, his glance turned on her now and again, but he did not break the silence. The strain was too much; in spite of all her efforts, in spite of a hatred of her own weakness that would have made her, for the moment, sooner die, a hysterical sob burst from her lips.
Medland stopped.
"You must let me go," he said. "I am very busy. You can overtake the others. Good-bye."
He held out his hand, and she gave him hers. It was kind of him to go and make no words about the manner of his going, yet it showed that her desperate hope that he had not noticed was utterly vain.
"Good-bye," she managed to murmur, with averted head.
"I shall see you again soon," he said, pressing her hand, and was gone.
In the evening, Lady Eynesford trenchantly condemned the ventilation of the Houses of Parliament.
"The wretched place has given Alicia a headache. I found the poor child crying with pain. I wonder you let her stay, Eleanor."
"I didn"t notice that it was close or hot."
"My dear Eleanor, you"re as strong as a pony," remarked Lady Eynesford.
"A very little thing upsets Alicia."
CHAPTER X.
THE SMOKE OF HIDDEN FIRES.
"No, I don"t like turn-down collars," remarked Daisy Medland.
"I"m very sorry," said Norburn. "You never said so before, and they"re so comfortable."
"And why don"t you wear a high hat, and a frock-coat? It looks so much better. Mr.--well, Mr. c.o.xon always does when he goes anywhere in the afternoon."
"I didn"t know c.o.xon was your standard of perfection, Daisy. He didn"t use to be in the old days."
"Oh, it"s not only Mr. c.o.xon."
"I know it isn"t," replied Norburn significantly.
"I wonder the Governor lets you come in that hat," continued Daisy, scornfully eyeing Norburn"s unconventional headgear.
"It"s very like your father"s."
"My father"s not a young man. What would you think if the Governor laid foundation-stones in a short jacket and a hat like yours?"
"I should think him a very sensible man."
"Well, I should think him a _guy_," said Miss Medland, with intense emphasis.
This method of treating an old friend galled Norburn excessively. When anger is in, the brains are out.
"I suppose Mr. Derosne is your ideal," he said.
Daisy accepted the opening of hostilities with alacrity.
"He dresses just perfectly," she remarked, "and he doesn"t bore one with politics."
This latter remark was rather shameless, for Daisy was generally a keen partisan of her father"s, and very ready to listen to anything connected with his public doings.
"You never used to say that sort of thing to me."
"Oh,"used!" I believe you"ve said "used" six times in ten minutes! Am I always to go on talking as I _used_ when I was in the nursery? I say it now anyhow, Mr. Norburn."
Norburn took up the despised hat. Looking at it now through Daisy"s eyes he could not maintain that it was a handsome hat.
"It"s your own fault. You began it," said Daisy, stifling a pang of compunction, for she really liked him very much, else why should she mind what he wore?
"I began it?"
"Yes. By--by dragging in Mr. Derosne."
"I only mentioned him as an example of fashionable youth."
"You know you wouldn"t like it if I went about in dowdy old things."
"I don"t mind a bit what you wear. It"s all the same to me."
"How very peculiar you are!" exclaimed Daisy, with a look of compa.s.sionate amazement. "Most people notice what I wear. Oh, and I"ve got a charming dress for the flower-show at Government House."
"You"re invited, are you?" asked Norburn, with an ill-judged exhibition of surprise.
"Of course I"m invited."
"I"m sorry to hear it."
"Why, pray, Mr. Norburn? Are you going?"
"Yes. I suppose I must."
"Not in that hat!" implored Daisy.