Nothing went amiss with Charles but what he seemed to blame her for
it, and while she resented this strange form of attention, she had a
compensating conviction that he was really paying tribute and she knew
that the absence of his complaints would have left a blank. Fixing her
with his pale eyes, he described the bitterness of life in his
father's office, his mismanagement of clients, his father's sneers,
his mother's sighs; his sufferings in not being allowed to go to
Germany and study music.
'If I were a man,' Henrietta said, voicing a pathetic faith in
masculine ability to break bonds, 'I would do what I liked. I'd go to
Germany and starve and be happy. A man can do and get anything he
really wants.'
'Ah, I shall remember that,' he said. 'But I can't go to Germany now,'
he added darkly, and when she asked him for a reason, he groaned.
'Even you--even you don't understand me.'
In this respect she understood him perfectly well, but she did not
wish to clear the mysterious gloom, not devoid of excitement, in which
they moved together; and they parted for the summer holidays,
miserably on his part, cheerfully on hers. She was going to Scotland
with Aunt Rose and the prospect was so delightful that she did not
trouble to inquire about his movements.
She was surprised and almost disappointed that he did not reproach her
for this thoughtlessness when, on her return, she went to call on Mrs.
Batty and hear about her annual holiday at Bournemouth.
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