threat.

"And upon that you judge me, without a hearing?" She let her arms
drop beside her.

"Will you deny it? Will you deny you have been in the habit of
meeting--no, I see you will not. Apparently Mrs. Grantham has
dismissed you."

"Sir, Mrs. Grantham has not dismissed me. I came away against her
wish, because--"

"Well?" he waited, chewing his wrath.

It was idle now to say she had come meaning to confess. That chance
had gone.

"I ask you to remember, sir, that I never promised not to meet him."
Since a fight it must be, she picked up all her courage for it.
"I had no right to promise it."

His mouth opened, but shut again like a trap. He had the
self-control to postpone battle. "We will see about that," he said
grimly. "Meanwhile, please you mount behind me and ride."

As they jogged towards Wroote, Hetty, holding on by her father's
coat, seemed to feel in her finger-tips the wrath pent up and working
in his small body. She was profoundly dejected; so profoundly that
she almost forgot to be indignant with William Wright; but she had no
thought of striking her colours. She built some hope upon Sam, too.