Yet poor Theresa
blundered on.
"I told the vicar that, Sir Charles being from home, I felt I might make
the offer myself, seeing how much it would simplify the arrangements and
how very little work Patch has when you and I are alone here. It is a
pity there is not time to obtain Sir Charles's sanction. That would be
more proper, of course, more satisfactory. But under the circumstances it
need not, I think, be regarded as an insuperable objection. I told the
Miss Minetts and the vicar"--
Here Miss Bilson blushed, applying fork and spoon, in coy confusion, to
the remains of the nectarine upon her plate.
"I told them," she repeated, "knowing Sir Charles as well as I do, I felt
I might safely assure them of that."
In Damaris, meanwhile, anger gradually gave place to far more complex
emotions. She sat well back in her chair, and clasped her hands firmly in
her flowered Pompadour-muslin lap. Her eyes looked enormous as she kept
them fixed gravely and steadily upon the speaker. For extraordinary ideas
and perceptions concerning the said speaker crowded into her young head.
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