Still the General sat mute and pale, looking steadfastly on the floor; he seemed for a time unconscious that James had ceased to speak, but at last raising his head slowly, he cast a look that was almost fiendish on the younger Harrington.
"Go on, go on!" he said, hoarsely.
"I will, sir! Heaven knows it was my wish to bury this secret forever, but you force me to speak. My poor mother's sickness added new pain to my unhappy situation; she died"——
"And left me a beggar—you a rich man!" said the General, hoarsely. "I have not forgotten it!"
"Then," continued James, "I was free to marry the lady on equal terms—free to replace her fortune from my own inheritance, and keep your secret still from her knowledge—but it was no time for selfish affection, just as my angel mother was laid in a foreign grave. It required time before I could control so large a portion of the property that had been hers. I left you in Spain, sad, but hopeful, a few months would have brought me back prepared to save your honor and my own happiness. You know the rest!"
CHAPTER LXIII.
JAMES HARRINGTON'S GREAT STRUGGLE.
General Harrington arose, slowly, for his limbs trembled with intense rage, and it was with difficulty that he stood up.
"We know each other!" he said, shaking his finger at the younger Harrington, and drawing closer and closer, till it almost touched his face. "You have been the traitor in my household—plundered my closest secrets—alienated my wife; talk of dishonor, sir, what was mine compared to yours?"
But James Harrington had regained all his strength, and stood up firmly before the infuriated old man.