Brian rose to his feet.
"Then you are a rich woman?"
"Yes."
"It is you, perhaps, who have paid me for teaching these boys?"
"There is no disgrace in being paid for work that is worth doing and that is done well," said Elizabeth, flashing an indignant look at him.
He bowed his head to the rebuke.
"You are right, Miss Murray. But you will, I hope, do me the justice to see that I was perfectly ignorant of the state of affairs; that I was blind—foolishly blind——"
"Not foolishly. You could not help it."
"I might have seen. I might have known. I took you for——" And there Brian stopped, actually colouring at the thought of his mistake.
"For the poor relation; the penniless cousin. But it was most natural that you should, and two years ago it would have been perfectly true. I have not been a rich woman for very many months, and I do not love my riches very much."