She was
aware of a strong resentment to his brusque order, as well as to the
thought that it was to the house of an apostate that she was going; yet
there was a no less strong emotion within her that he had a sort of
right to command her. These feelings, working upon her, dazed as she was
by the sudden sharpness of her fall, and the pain in her foot, combined
to drive her along in a kind of resignation in the wake of the squire.
Still confused, yet with a rapid series of these same emotions running
before her mind, she limped up the steps, supported by Alice and her
maid, and sat down on a bench at the end of the hall. The squire, who
had shouted an order or two to a peeping domestic, as he passed up the
court, came to her immediately with a cup in his hand.
"You must drink this at once, mistress."
She took it at once, drank and set it down, aware of the keen,
angry-looking face that watched her.
"You will dine here, too, mistress--" he began, still with a sharp
kindness.... And then, on a sudden, all grew dark about her; there was a
roaring in her ears, and she fainted.
* * * * *
She came out of her swoon again, after a while, with that strange and
innocent clearness that usually follows such a thing, to find Alice
beside her, a tapestried wall behind Alice, and the sound of a crackling
fire in her ears. Then she perceived that she was in a small room, lying
on her back along a bench, and that someone was bathing her foot.
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