'My dear, why did you not go with your Aunt Jane and me?'
'I did not want to go. It was so cold,' said Dolores in a glum tone.
'Would it not have been kinder to have found that out sooner? If I had
not met the others in the paddock, and picked up Valetta, the chance
would have been missed, and you knew she wanted to go.'
Dolores knew it well enough. The reason she was in this room was that
all the returning party had fallen upon her; Wilfred had called her a
dog in the manger, and Gillian herself had not gainsayed him--but the
general indignation had only made her feel, 'what a fuss about the
darling.'
'Another time, too,' added Lady Merrifield, 'remember that it would be
proper to come down and speak to me instead of shouting over the
balusters in that unmannerly way; without so much as taking leave of
your Aunt Jane. If she had not been almost late for her train, I should
have insisted.'
'You might, and I should not have come if you had dragged me,' thought,
but did not say, Dolores. She only stood looking dogged, and not
attempting the 'I beg your pardon,' for which her aunt was waiting.
'I think,' said Lady Merrifield, gently, 'that when you consider it a
little, you will see that it would be well to be more considerate and
gracious. And one thing more, my dear, I can have no passing of private
notes between you and Constance Hacket. You see a good deal of each
other openly, and such doings are very silly and missish, and have an
underhand appearance such as I am sure your father would not like.
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