Then there was an awkward silence. Lady Carbury was angry, and hardly knew whether she ought or ought not to show her anger. For Henrietta it was very awkward. She, too, could not but feel that she had been caught, though no innocence could be whiter than hers. She knew well her mother's mind, and the way in which her mother's thoughts would run. Silence was frightful to her, and she found herself forced to speak. "Have you had a pleasant evening, mamma?" "Have you had a pleasant evening, my dear?" said Lady Carbury, forgetting herself in her desire to punish her daughter. "Indeed, no," said Hetta, attempting to laugh, "I have been trying to work hard at Dante, but one never does any good when one has to try to work. I was just going to bed when Mr. Montague came in. What did you think of the wise men and the wise women, Roger?" "I was out of my element, of course; but I think your mother liked it." "I was very glad indeed to meet Dr. Palmoil. It seems that if we can only open the interior of Africa a little further, we can get everything that is wanted to complete the chemical combination necessary for feeding the human race. Isn't that a grand idea, Roger?" "A little more elbow grease is the combination that I look to." "Surely, Roger, if the Bible is to go for anything, we are to believe that labour is a curse and not a blessing. Adam was not born to labour." "But he fell; and I doubt whether Dr. Palmoil will be able to put his descendants back into Eden." "Roger, for a religious man, you do say the strangest things! I have quite made up my mind to this;--if ever I can see things so settled here as to enable me to move, I will visit the interior of Africa. It is the garden of the world." This scrap of enthusiasm so carried them through their immediate difficulties that the two men were able to take their leave and to get out of the room with fair comfort. As soon as the door was closed behind them Lady Carbury attacked her daughter. "What brought him here?" "He brought himself, mamma." "Don't answer me in that way, Hetta. Of course he brought himself. That is insolent." "Insolent, mamma! How can you say such hard words? I meant that he came of his own accord." "How long was he here?" "Two minutes before you came in. Why do you cross-question me like this? I could not help his coming. I did not desire that he might be shown up." "You did not know that he was to come?" "Mamma, if I am to be suspected, all is over between us." "What do you mean by that?" "If you can think that I would deceive you, you will think so always. If you will not trust me, how am I to live with you as though you did? I knew nothing of his coming." "Tell me this, Hetta; are you engaged to marry him?" "No;--I am not." "Has he asked you to marry him?" Hetta paused a moment, considering, before she answered this question. "I do not think he ever has." "You do not think?"