Anthony Trollope: The Belton Estate

18. CHAPTER XVIII: MRS ASKERTON'S STORY (continued)

'That simply means low spirits, I suppose?'

'It's more than that, my dear.'

'Not much more, I take it.'

'Once when we were in India we lived close to the powder magazine, and we were always expecting to be blown up. You never lived near a powder magazine.'

'No, never unless there's one at Belton. But I should have thought that was exciting.'

'And then there was the gentleman who always had the sword hanging over him by the horse's hair.'

'What do you mean, Mrs Askerton?'

'Don't look so innocent, Clara. You know what I mean. What were the results at last of your cousin's diligence as a detective officer?'

'Mrs Askerton, you wrong my cousin greatly. He never once mentioned your name while he was with us. He did not make a single allusion to you, or to Colonel Askerton, or to the cottage.'

'He did not?'

'Never once.'

'Then I beg his pardon. But not the less has he been busy making inquiries.'

'But why should you say that there is a powder magazine, or a sword hanging over your head?'

'Ah, why?'

Here was the subject ready opened to her hand, and yet Clara did not know how to go on with it. It seemed to her now that it would have been easier for her to commence it, if Mrs Askerton had made no commencement herself. As it was, she knew not how to introduce the subject of Captain Aylmer's letter, and was almost inclined to wait, thinking that Mrs Askerton might tell her own story without any such introduction. But nothing of the kind was forthcoming. Mrs Askerton began to talk of the frost, and then went on to abuse Ireland, complaining of the hardship her husband endured in being forced to go thither in winter to look after his tenants.