"I suppose your father has gone
over to the public-house again. That, miss, is what comes from your
pig headiness. Didn't I tell you that you were ruining everybody
belonging to you?" Before all this was over Reginald Morton had
escaped, feeling that he could do no good to either side by
remaining a witness to such a scene. He must take some other
opportunity of finding the attorney and of learning from him
whether he intended that his daughter should be allowed to accept
Lady Ushant's invitation.
Poor Mary as she shrunk into the house was nearly heartbroken. That
such things should be at all was very dreadful, but that the scene
should have taken place in the presence of Reginald Morton was an
aggravation of the misery which nearly overwhelmed her. How could
she make him understand whence had arisen her stepmother's anger
and that she herself had been neither sly nor deceitful nor
pigheaded?
CHAPTER XX
"But there is some one"
When Mr. Masters had gone across to the Bush his purpose had
certainly been ignoble, but it had had no reference to brandy and
water. And the allusion made by Mrs. Masters to the probable ruin
which was to come from his tendencies in that direction had been
calumnious, for she knew that the man was not given to excess in
liquor. But as he approached his own house he bethought himself
that it would not lead to domestic comfort if he were seen
returning from his walk with Mary, and he had therefore made some
excuse as to the expediency of saying a word to Runciman whom he
espied at his own door.
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