His lips were
parted and he was wavering slightly with a strange movement--the
movement of a man who has drunk too much. Then Rowland's eyes met Miss
Garland's again, and her own, which had rested a moment on Roderick's,
were formidable!
CHAPTER IX. Mary Garland
How it befell that Roderick had failed to be in Leghorn on his mother's
arrival never clearly transpired; for he undertook to give no elaborate
explanation of his fault. He never indulged in professions (touching
personal conduct) as to the future, or in remorse as to the past, and
as he would have asked no praise if he had traveled night and day to
embrace his mother as she set foot on shore, he made (in Rowland's
presence, at least) no apology for having left her to come in search of
him. It was to be said that, thanks to an unprecedentedly fine season,
the voyage of the two ladies had been surprisingly rapid, and that,
according to common probabilities, if Roderick had left Rome on the
morrow (as he declared that he had intended), he would have had a day or
two of waiting at Leghorn. Rowland's silent inference was that
Christina Light had beguiled him into letting the time slip, and it was
accompanied with a silent inquiry whether she had done so unconsciously
or maliciously.
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