MRS. RADER HAS A WORD TO SAY
tical and unconvinced. "I am sure neither she nor I have had any intention that could alarm you."
"I don't think people always know what they intend, or even what they are doing," Mrs. Rader said.
Carron waved exasperated arms. "I promise you I will be off to-morrow morning, if that reassures you at all; but I can not promise to go out of the county. That's nonsense. I can not listen to anything more." He brushed quickly past her, through the door behind her, into the dining-room; here, opening the little outer door, he stepped out on to the piazza. To have stayed in there any longer would have meant losing his temper, and possibly his nerve.
He felt more shaken than if he had been through a fight.
He was turned out emphatically by a timid, resolute woman. For what reason? In the dark the thought made him hot.
Why should she take it for granted that the girl was in such danger from him? What sort of creature did she suppose him—invulnerable, iron, deadly? Did she think he was in no danger himself? He was far from being sure. He was terribly uncertain. He had defended the girl as he had been bound to do by the intolerable circumstance; but now it seemed to him that it had been ill done. Suppose she told her mother of what had happened! It was not probable;
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