Lady Gertrude waited until the servants had cleared away the breakfast, then she turned to Nan with a very definite air of having something to say.
"Have you and Roger quarrelled?" she asked abruptly.
The girl started nervously. She had not expected this as a consequence of Roger's taciturnity.
"No," she said, stumbling a little. "No, we haven't--quarrelled."
Lady Gertrude scrutinised her with keen, light-grey eyes that had the same penetrating glance as Roger's own, and Nan felt herself colouring under it.
"You've displeased him in some way or other," insisted Lady Gertrude, and waited for a reply.
Nan flared up at the older woman's arbitrary manner.
"That's rather a funny way to put it, isn't it?" she said quickly. "I'm--I'm not a child, you know."
"You behave very much like one at times," retorted Lady Gertrude. "I've done my utmost since you came here to fit you to be Roger's wife, and without any appreciable result. You seem to be exactly as irresponsible and thoughtless as when you arrived."
The cold, contemptuous criticism flicked the girl's raw nerves like the point of a lash. She sprang to her feet, her eyes very bright, as though tears were not far distant, her young breast rising and falling unevenly with her hurrying breath.
"Is that what you think of me?" she said unsteadily. "Because then I'd better go away. It's what I want--to go away! I--I can't bear it here any longer." Her fingers gripped the edge of the table tensely. She was struggling to keep down the rising sobs which threatened to choke her speech. "I know you don't want me to be Roger's wife--you don't think I'm fit for it! You've just said so! And--and you've let me see it every day. I'll go--I'll go!"
Lady Gertrude's face remained quite unchanged. Only the steely gleam in her eyes hardened.
"When this hysterical outburst is quite over," she said scathingly, "I shall be better able to talk to you."
Nan made no answer. It was all she could do to prevent herself from bursting into tears.
"Sit down again." Lady Gertrude pointed to a chair, and Nan, who felt her legs trembling under her, sat down obediently. "You're quite mistaken in thinking I don't wish you to be Roger's wife," continued Lady Gertrude quietly. "I do wish it."