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'When did your lies begin? Was it when you told me you had been to hear Miss Barfoot's lecture, and never went there at all? He aimed the charge at a venture, and her face told him that his suspicion had been grounded. 'For how many weeks, for how many months, have you been dishonouring me and yourself? 'I am not guilty of what you believe, but I shan't try to defend myself.
She had not yet visited it, but hoped to do so on Monday. Did she herself do any kind of artistic work? Oh, nothing whatever; she was a very useless and idle person. He believed she had been a pupil of Miss Barfoot's at one time? Yes, for a very short time indeed, just before her marriage. Was she not an intimate friend of Miss Nunn? Hardly intimate.
One of these had caused Miss Barfoot special distress. A young girl whom she had released from a life of much hardship, and who, after a couple of months' trial, bade fair to develop noteworthy ability, of a sudden disappeared. She was without relatives in London, and Miss Barfoot's endeavours to find her proved for several weeks very futile.
Her refusal to repeat the substance of Barfoot's conversation was, in some degree, prompted by a wish for the continuance of his groundless fears. By persevering in suspicion of Barfoot, he afforded her a firm foothold in their ever-renewed quarrels.
And having persuaded herself that this decision was irrevocable, she thought it as well to gratify Miss Barfoot's curiosity, for by now she felt able to relate what had happened in Cumberland with a certain satisfaction the feeling she had foreseen when, in the beginning of her acquaintance with Everard, it flattered her to observe his growing interest.
Widdowson's eyes fell; his brow was wrinkled. 'He's often there, then? 'I don't know. Perhaps he is. He's Miss Barfoot's cousin, you know. 'You haven't seen him more than once before? 'No. Why do you ask? 'Oh, it was only that he seemed to speak as if you were old acquaintances. 'That's his way, I suppose.
Among the few people she had called her friends there was one strong woman strong of brain, and capable, it might be, of speaking the words that go from soul to soul; this woman she had deeply offended, yet owing to mere mischance. Whether or no Rhoda Nunn had lent ear to Barfoot's wooing she must be gravely offended; she had given proof of it in the interview reported by Virginia.
Sentimental confession never entered Miss Barfoot's mind; she had conquered her desires, and was by no means inclined to make herself ridiculous; Rhoda Nunn, of all women, seemed the least likely to make remarks, or put questions, such as would endanger a betrayal of the buried past.
For one thing, her social position brought her in the way of men who might fall in love with her, whereas Mildred lived absolutely apart from the male world; doubtless, too, her passions were stronger. She loved literature, spent as much time as possible in study, and had set her mind upon helping to establish that ideal woman's paper of which there was often talk at Miss Barfoot's.
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