What had he seen in the column of village gossip? Lavinia was conscious
that a hornets’ nest had been rent asunder, above her head. A hundred
furious possibilities buzzed in her ears. Stumbling in wild agitation
to the deep closet of her room, she took a leather-bound volume from
her Gladstone, where it had lain since her return from Detroit. Without
opening it, she fled in a panic to Vine Cottage--burst into the
breakfast-room, with a fine show of indignation, and flung the book on
the table.
“There! I’m done with that thing. Browning’s a fool!”
“I’m sorry you have found him unprofitable. He isn’t easy reading.”
“I have as much sense as you or Mrs. Henderson. You made me believe he
told the truth. I hate a liar. I never told a lie in my life.”
“I didn’t ask you to take the volume,” Judith said pointedly.
“No, but you made me believe there was something in it--something that
was an improvement on the Bible....”
Her daughter-in-law took up the offender and carried it to the library.
When she returned, there was a precipitate relapse into a chair.
Lavinia had improved the interval to look for the Sentinel. It was not
in the room. A bitter tirade poured from her purple lips. There was no
use in people trying to shirk responsibility. David had always done it.
So had Larimore. They continually placed her in untenable situations
and then left her to bear the consequences alone. She had had to rear
the family single-handed, to take all the responsibility for their
moral and financial welfare. If it had not been for her, they might
have been criminals or tramps. David had never concerned himself for
her ... or them.
“Mother, I can’t listen to such outrageous injustice. I have never seen
a more considerate husband than father is to you. Even Lary, with all
his tenderness, and his perfect comradeship, has his eyes on himself
most of the time. Father never thinks of himself. His whole heart is
given to you and his children.”
“Yes, and he hangs over me until he drives me to distraction. I’ll tell
him where I have been--if he doesn’t stop following me about--as if I
hadn’t a right to go where I please.”