And yet? Yet what pain and distress
Miss Pendarth had caused them all at the time of the Rosamund trouble!
Instead of behaving like a true friend, and, as far as possible, stopping
the flow of gossip, she had added to its volume, causing the story to be
known to a far larger circle than would otherwise have been the case. But
Betty, honesty itself, was well aware that her step-mother had made a
serious mistake in not telling Miss Pendarth what there was to tell. A
confidence she never betrayed.
Betty also reminded herself ruefully that in the far-away days when
Godfrey Radmore had been so often an inmate of Old Place, there had been
something like open war between himself and Miss Pendarth, and when she
had heard of his extraordinary good fortune, she had not hidden her
regret that it had fallen on one so unworthy.
As Betty went up to the iron gate and unlatched it, she half hoped that
the owner of Rose Cottage would be out. Miss Pendarth, unlike most of her
neighbours, always kept her front door locked--you could not turn the
handle and walk right into the house.
To-day she answered Betty's ring herself, and with a smile of welcome
lighting up her rather grim face she drew the girl into the hall and
kissed her affectionately.
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