"
Sensitive as all his tribe, and himself both gentle by nature and
considerate of others according to his lights, which thoughtlessness
might turn down or passion blur, but which burned steadily and brightly
in the main, Charles Langholm felt stung to the soul by the last few
words, in which Hugh Woodgate noticed nothing amiss. Steel's tone was
not openly insulting, but rather that of banter, misplaced perhaps, and
in poor taste at such a time, yet ostensibly good-natured and innocent
of ulterior meaning. But Langholm was not deceived. There was an
ulterior meaning to him, and a very unpleasant one withal. Yet he did
not feel unjustifiably insulted; he looked within, and felt justly
rebuked; not for anything he had said or done, but for what he found in
his heart at that moment. Langholm entered the drawing-room in profound
depression, but his state of mind was no longer due to anything that had
just been said.
The scene awaiting him was surely calculated to deepen that dejection.
Rachel had left the gentlemen with the proud mien and the unbroken
spirit which she had maintained at table without trace of effort; they
found her sobbing on Morna Woodgate's shoulder, in distress so poignant
and so pitiful that even Steel stopped short upon the threshold.
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