"And let me alone," said Karen, who had listened without a movement.
"Oh no," Gregory said, "that's not at all true. You surely will be fair enough to own that it's not; that I did everything I could to give you both complete liberty."
"As when you applauded and upheld Betty for her insolent interference; as when you complained to me of my guardian because she asked that I should have a wider life; as when you hoped to have Mrs. Talcott here so that my guardian might be kept out."
"Did she suggest that?"
"She showed it to me. I had not seen it even then. Do you deny it?"
"No; I don't suppose I can, though it was nothing so definite. But I certainly hoped that Madame von Marwitz would not come here."
"And yet you can tell me that you have not tried to come between us."
"Yes; I can. I never tried to come between you. I tried to keep away. It's been she, as I say, who has tracked me down. That was what I was afraid of if she came here; that she'd force me to show my dislike. Can you deny, Karen, I ask you this, that from the beginning she has made capital to you out of my dislike, and pointed it out to you?"
"I will not discuss that with you," said Karen; "I know that you can twist all her words and actions."
"I don't want to do that. I can see a certain justice in her malice. It was hard for her, of course, to find that you'd married a man she didn't take to and who didn't take to her; but why couldn't she have left it at that?"