Part 82 (2/2)
”I really do think, t.i.ta, that you ought to refrain from speeches like that. They are unworthy of you, and they are not true. Whatever infatuation Maurice felt for Marian Bethune in the past, lies in the past. Only to-day he told me----”
”Told you?”
t.i.ta leans eagerly forward.
”That if he ever _had_ loved her--and he seemed now to doubt that--he loved her no longer.”
”Just shows how fickle he is,” says t.i.ta, with supreme scorn.
”Of course, if you are determined to misjudge him in _every_ way----”
”It is he who misjudges me!” She gets up and walks impatiently from Margaret to the window and back again. ”How could he say I deliberately deserted him?”
Margaret looks at her. It suddenly occurs to her what a blessed thought that was of hers to take him out of hearing to the far end of the room.
”You heard that, then?”
t.i.ta starts and turns crimson.
”Oh, that!” stammers she. ”Well, I--I couldn't help it. I was near the door, and he spoke very loudly, and----”
”And you heard,” says Margaret, suppressing some amus.e.m.e.nt. ”Quite so. Well, you did leave him, you see.”
”Not until he drove me to it by his cruelty, his wicked suspicions.
You know that, Margaret.”
”Oh! I know he behaved like a stupid boy,” says Margaret impatiently.
”Ah, _darling_ Meg! I _knew_ you would take my part.”
”And you,” mercilessly, ”behaved like a silly baby.”
t.i.ta flings herself into a chair with a petulant gesture.
”He has won you over to his side. I knew, when he took you down to the end of the room, where I could hear nothing, that he was going to poison your mind against me.”
Miss Knollys gives way once more to ill-timed mirth.
”So you were _looking,_ too?” says she.
”I--no. Oh _no._ I--I only”--growing crimson--”wanted to see whether you were safe. You had stopped talking, and I know how violent he can be, and,” with a gasp, ”I just looked once to see that you were alive.”
”t.i.ta,” says Miss Knollys solemnly, ”when I want those dozen lies told for me in a minute, I shan't ask _you_ to tell them.”
CHAPTER XXII.
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