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Langhope's thrust, but his voice betrayed no irritation, and Bessy rewarded him with an unexpected beam of sympathy: she was always up in arms at the least sign of his being treated as an intruder. "I am sure, papa," she said, a little tremulously, "that poor Richard, though he knew I was not clever, felt he could trust me to take the best advice "
Langhope's pretty dinner-table, and afterward in the charming drawing-room, with its delicate old ornaments and intimate luxurious furniture; but she could not continue to sit motionless in the dark: it was her innermost instinct to pick herself up and go on.
Langhope's answer was a vague murmur of assent, and Amherst turned the talk to other matters. Mr. Langhope returned to town with distinct views on the situation at Hanaford. "Poor devil I'm sorry for him: he can hardly speak of her," he broke out at once to Mrs. Ansell, in the course of their first confidential hour together. "Because he cares too much he's too unhappy?" "Because he loathes her!"
"Foolish child! And to beg you are ashamed? And so you're letting your tears cool Mr. Langhope's soup?" He had her in his arms now, his kisses drying her cheek; and she turned her head so that their lips met in a long pressure. "Will a hundred dollars do?" he asked with a smile as he released her. A hundred dollars! No she was almost sure they would not.
"Only a flying word she had to go and look after the new arrivals." Mr. Langhope's attention deepened. "Well, what did you say to her?" "Wouldn't you rather hear what she said to me?" He smiled. "A good cross-examiner always gets the answers he wants. Let me hear your side, and I shall know hers."
This time the news was all good: the work at Westmore was prospering, and on Justine's side there was a more cheerful report of Mr. Langhope's health, and best of all his promise to give them Cicely for the summer.
She had only to hold her tongue!" Mr. Langhope laughed sardonically. "It's not quite so simple. Amherst was coming to town to tell me." "Ah he knows?" "Yes and she preferred that I should have her version first." "And what is her version?" The furrows of misery deepened in Mr. Langhope's face. "Maria don't ask too much of me! I can't go over it again.
And it flashed across him that this solution might have been foreseen by his wife might even have been deliberately planned and led up to by those about her. His father-in-law had never liked him the disturbing waves of his activity had rippled even the sheltered surface of Mr. Langhope's existence. He must have been horribly in their way! Well it was not too late to take himself out of it.
But she had not yet been able to invent a reason for leaving that should be convincing enough to satisfy him, without directing his suspicions to the truth. As she revolved the question she suddenly recalled an exclamation of Amherst's a word spoken as they entered Mr. Langhope's door, on the fatal afternoon when she had found Wyant's letter awaiting her.
She threw down the calendar and leaned back, pressing her hands to her temples. Oh, for a word with Amherst he alone would have understood what she was undergoing! Mr. Langhope's coming would make no difference or rather, it would only increase the difficulty of the situation.
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