'
Emily made a last desperate effort. She wrung her handkerchief
hard in her lap, and let off the name as if she had been letting
off a loaded gun:--'Lord Montbarry!'
Agnes rose and looked at her.
'You have disappointed me,' she said very quietly, but with a look
which the courier's wife had never seen in her face before.
'Knowing what you know, you ought to be aware that it is impossible
for me to communicate with Lord Montbarry. I always supposed you
had some delicacy of feeling. I am sorry to find that I have
been mistaken.'
Weak as she was, Emily had spirit enough to feel the reproof.
She walked in her meek noiseless way to the door. 'I beg your pardon,
Miss. I am not quite so bad as you think me. But I beg your pardon,
all the same.'
She opened the door. Agnes called her back. There was something
in the woman's apology that appealed irresistibly to her just and
generous nature. 'Come,' she said; 'we must not part in this way.
Let me not misunderstand you. What is it that you expected me
to do?'
Emily was wise enough to answer this time without any reserve.
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