And now, she
supposed, as Marcia had actually been so foolish, so headstrong, as to go
herself--without permission either from her mother or her betrothed--to
see these two people at the farm, the very day before this horrible thing
happened, she might have to appear at the inquest. Most improper and
annoying!
However, she scarcely expressed her disapproval aloud with her usual
trenchancy. In the first place, Marcia's tremulous state made it difficult.
In the next, she was herself so far from normal that she could not, after
the first few minutes, keep her attention fixed upon the matter at all. She
began abruptly to question Marcia as to whether she had seen Arthur the
night before--or that morning?
"I had gone up-stairs before he arrived last night--and this morning he's
not yet down," said the girl, perfunctorily, as though she only answered
the question with her lips, without attaching any real meaning to it. Then
her mother's aspect, which on her entrance she had scarcely noticed, struck
her with a sudden and added distress.
"You don't look well, mother. Don't come down to-day."
"I shall certainly come down by luncheon-time," said Lady Coryston,
sharply.
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