Page:The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (emended first edition), Volume 1.djvu/168

156 She closed her lips and folded her hands before her with an air of injured meekness.

"If you had wished not to anger me, you should have held your tongue from the beginning; or else spoken out plainly and honestly all you had to say."

She turned aside her face, pulled out her handkerchief, rose, and went to the window, where she stood for some time, evidently dissolved in tears. I was astounded, provoked, ashamed—not so much of my harshness as for her childish weakness. However, no one seemed to notice her, and shortly after, we were summoned to the tea-table; in those parts it was customary to sit to the table at tea-time, on all occasions, and make a meal of it; for we dined early. On taking my seat, I had Rose on one side of me, and an empty chair on the other.

"May I sit by you?" said a soft voice at my elbow.

"If you like," was the reply; and Eliza