I don't suppose she will stay
long. Perhaps she will go back the same day. I am sure I shan't
know what to say to her. But when anything is fixed I will send you
in word by the postman."
Reginald would have walked back with her across the bridge but that
he had promised to go to his cousin immediately after lunch. As it
was he offered to accompany her a part of the way, but was stopped
by his aunt, greatly to Mary's comfort. He was now more beyond her
reach than ever,--more utterly removed from her. He would probably
become Squire of Bragton, and she, in her earliest days, had heard
the late Squire spoken of as though he were one of the potentates
of the earth. She had never thought it possible; but now it was
less possible than ever. There was something in his manner to her
almost protective, almost fatherly,--as though he had some
authority over her. Lady Ushant had authority once, but he had
none. In every tone of his voice she felt that she heard an
expression of interest in her welfare, but it was the interest
which a grown-up person takes in a child, or a superior in an
inferior. Of course he was her superior, but yet the tone of his
voice was distasteful to her. As she walked back to Dillsborough
she told herself that she would not go again to Bragton without
assuring herself that he was not there.
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