The hero of that sorry escapade had been a man of forty, separated from
his wife. On the principle that "truth will out even in an affidavit,"
poor Rosamund's little world was well aware that the girl, or rather the
child, had been simply vain and imprudent. But still, she had disappeared
for two terrible long days and nights, and even now, when anything
recalled the episode to her step-mother or to Betty, they would shudder
with an awful inward tremor, recollecting what they had both gone
through. That she had come back as silly and innocent a girl as she had
left, and feeling as much shame as she was capable of feeling, had been
owing to the tardily awakened sense of prudence and honour in the man to
whom she had run away in a fit of temper after a violent quarrel with--of
all people in the world--her brother Jack.
Rosamund now ardently desired to become an actress, and after much secret
discussion with his wife, her father had at last told her that if she
were of the same opinion when she reached the age of twenty-one he would
put no obstacle in her way.
As to Tom, the youngest of Janet Tosswill's step-children, he was "quite
all right." Though only fifteen months younger than Rosamund, whereas she
was as much of a woman as she ever would be, he was still a cheery,
commonplace schoolboy.
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