'
'Come, come, Maud, you must not prevaricate, girl. I _will_ have it. Does
she not habitually speak disparagingly of me, in your presence, and _to_
you? _Answer_.'
I hung my head.
'Yes or no?'
'Well, perhaps so--yes,' I faltered, and burst into tears.
'There, don't cry; it may well shock you. Did she not, to your knowledge,
say the same things in presence of my child Millicent? I know it, I
repeat--there is no use in hesitating; and I command you to answer.'
Sobbing, I told the truth.
'Now sit still, while I write my reply.'
He wrote, with the scowl and smile so painful to witness, as he looked down
upon the paper, and then he placed the note before me--
'Read that, my dear.'
It began--
'MY DEAR LADY KNOLLYS.--You have favoured me with a note, adding your
request to that of Lord Ilbury, that I should permit my ward and my
daughter to avail themselves of Lady Mary's invitation. Being perfectly
cognisant of the ill-feeling you have always and unaccountably cherished
toward me, and also of the terms in which you have had the delicacy and the
conscience to speak of me before and to my child and my ward, I can only
express my amazement at the modesty of your request, while peremptorily
refusing it.
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