When he talked of
dinner she did more than smile and refuse. She expostulated. For she well
knew that the twenty minutes for dinner were allowed at the Carlisle
station; and even if there had been no chocolate and no sherry, she would
have endured on, even up to absolute inanition, rather than step out upon
this well-remembered platform. "You must eat, or you'll be starved," he
said. "I'll fetch you something." So he bribed a special waiter, and she
was supplied with cold chicken and more sherry. After this Frank smoked
again, and did not reappear till they had reached Dumfries.
Hitherto there had been no tenderness--nothing but the coldest cousinship.
He clearly meant her to understand that he had submitted to the task of
accompanying her back to Portray Castle as a duty, but that he had nothing
to say to one who had so misbehaved herself. This was very irritating. She
could have taken herself home to Portray without his company, and have
made the journey more endurable without him than with him, if this were to
be his conduct throughout. They had had the carriage to themselves all the
way from Crewe to Carlisle, and he had hardly spoken a word to her.
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