Part 54 (1/2)
”She is his cousin.”
”So are you.”
”My dear, I am not married.”
”More shame on you,” says t.i.ta, with the ghost of a smile. ”Well, there was Miss Gower!”
”She is not married, either.”
”And no shame to anyone.” Here t.i.ta, in spite of her wrath, cannot help laughing. ”But really, Margaret, the blame should not be entirely on my side. If I have to accuse Maurice----”
”Accuse him! Of what?”
t.i.ta looks full at her.
”You are a good friend,” says she; ”but his mother told me.”
CHAPTER III.
HOW MR. GOWER GROWS DARKLY MYSTERIOUS; AND HOW t.i.tA HEARS OF THE ARRIVAL OF ANOTHER GUEST.
t.i.ta, going down the stairs after her interview with Margaret, meets Randal in the hall below.
”You look rather down on your luck!” says he.
”My looks belie me, then,” says she stoutly. ”But you--what is the matter with you?”
”Ruin!” says Mr. Gower tragically. ”My looks do _not_ belie me.”
”Good gracious, Randal!”
”Ruin stares me in the face,” says he, ”look where I will.”
”Very rude of it,” says t.i.ta, with an irrepressible laugh. ”One should never stare people out of countenance. You should speak to Ruin.”
”Oh, it's all very fine making a joke of it!” says Mr. Gower, who is, however, laughing too.
”Where are you going now?” asks t.i.ta, as he moves away from her towards the hall door.
”'Anywhere--anywhere out of the world,'” quotes he, with a dismal shake of the head.
”Is it so serious as all that?” cries t.i.ta. ”Look here, Randal, wait a moment, can't you? I have a last request to make. If you _are_ bent on dying, do it; but do it nicely--be picturesque: something original, and no blood. Promise me there will be no blood!”
”'So young, and so untender!'” says Gower, gazing at her with deep reproach.
He seems full of quotations.
”But where are you going, really?”