'Lord, no!' said Sir George. 'And I am, you see.' 'While I am not your wife!' she answered; and flashed her eyes on him in
sudden petulance; and then, 'Well, perhaps if my lady had her choice--to
be wife to a rake can be no bed of roses, Sir George! While to be wife
to a ruined rake--perhaps to be wife to a man who, if he were not
ruined, would treat you as the dirt beneath his feet, beneath his
notice, beneath--' She did not seem to be able to finish the sentence, but rose choking,
her face scarlet. He rose more slowly. 'Lord!' he said humbly, looking
at her in astonishment, 'what has come to you suddenly? What has made
you angry with me, child?' 'Child?' she exclaimed. 'Am I a child? You play with me as if I were!' 'Play with you?' Sir George said, dumfounded; he was quite taken aback
by her sudden vehemence. 'My dear girl, I cannot understand you. I am
not playing with you. If any one is playing, it is you. Sometimes--I
wonder whether you hate me or love me. Sometimes I am happy enough to
think the one; sometimes--I think the other--' 'It has never struck you,' she said, speaking with her head high, and in
her harshest and most scornful tone, 'that I may do neither the one nor
the other, but be pleased to kill my time with you--since I must stay
here until my lawyer has done his business?' 'Oh!' said Soane, staring helplessly at the angry beauty, 'if that be
all--' 'That is all!' she cried. 'Do you understand? That is all.' He bowed gravely. 'Then I am glad that I have been of use to you. That
at least,' he said.
'Thank you,' she said drily. 'I am going into the house now. I need not
trouble you farther.' And sweeping him a curtsey that might have done honour to a duchess, she
turned and sailed away, the picture of disdain. But when her face was
safe from his gaze and he could no longer see them, her eyes filled with
tears of shame and vexation; she had to bite her trembling lip to keep
them back. Presently she slackened her speed and almost stopped--then
hurried on, when she thought that she heard him following. But he did
not overtake her, and Julia's step grew slow again, and slower until she
reached the portico.
Between love and pride, hope and shame, she had a hard fight; happily a
coach was unloading, and she could stand and feign interest in the
passengers. Two young fellows fresh from Bath took fire at her eyes; but
one who stared too markedly she withered with a look, and, if the truth
be told, her fingers tingled for his ears. Her own ears were on the
alert, directed backwards like a hare's. Would he never come? Was he
really so simple, so abominably stupid, so little versed in woman's
ways? Or was he playing with her? Perhaps, he had gone into the town? Or
trudged up the Salisbury road; if so, and if she did not see him now,
she might not meet him until the next morning; and who could say what
might happen in the interval? True, he had promised that he would not
leave Marlborough without seeing her; but things had altered between
them since then.