presence? But for this, I
meant that you should never have been aware that I was hovering near to
watch over you.'

'Yes, to collect good stories for your club.'

'This is injustice! Flagrant injustice, Miss Sandbrook! Will you not
credit the anxiety that irresistibly impelled me to be ever at hand in
case you should need a protector?'

'No,' was the point-blank reply.

'How shall I convince you?' he cried, vehemently. 'What have I done that
you should refuse to believe in the feelings that prompted me?'

'What have you done?' said Lucilla, whose blood was up. 'You have taken
a liberty, which is the best proof of what your feelings are, and every
moment that you force your presence on me adds to the offence!'

She saw that she had succeeded. He stood still, bowed, and answered not,
possibly deeming this the most effective means of recalling her; but from
first to last he had not known Lucilla Sandbrook.

The eager, protecting familiarity of his first address had given her such
a shock that she felt certain that she had no guard but herself from
positively insulting advances; and though abstaining from all quickening
of pace, her heart throbbed violently in the fear of hearing him
following her, and the inn was a haven of refuge.

She flew up to her bedroom to tear about like a panther, as if by
violence to work down the tumult in her breast. She had proved the truth
of Honora's warning, that beyond the pale of ordinary _convenances_, a
woman is exposed to insult, and however sufficient she may be for her own
protection, the very fact of having to defend herself is well-nigh
degradation. It was not owning the error. It was the agony of
humiliation, not the meekness of humility, and she was as angry with Miss
Charlecote for the prediction as with Mr. Calthorp for having fulfilled
it, enraged with Horatia, and desperate at her present imprisoned
condition, unable to escape, and liable to be still haunted by her enemy.

At last she saw the discomfited swain re-enter the inn, his car come
round, and finally drive off with him; and then she felt what a blank was
her victory. If she breathed freely, it was at the cost of an increased
sense of solitude and severance from the habitable world.

Hitherto she had kept away from her cousin, trusting that the visit might
remain a secret, too mortifying to both parties to be divulged, but she
found Horatia in a state of eager anticipation, awakened from the torpor