"I don't say I am worthy, but I have a fairly clean record. As for that matter, I will explain. I was unwise, but I was not altogether to blame. My mother has a greatly loved young cousin. She has been in the house with us since her mother died some years ago. It was a scheme of my mother's that we should marry, though it was not openly expressed. I did not oppose it. I had no idea what love meant till I saw Pamela; but I had fetched and carried for Lady Kitty. Probably a great number of people thought we were engaged; and it seemed to me that I ought to set the matter straight before I was formally engaged to Pamela."
"It would have been better to have let Pamela alone till you were quite free."
"Yes, I know, but——"
"There; you are young. You can't be expected to be as deliberate as an older man. You meant to act straight by her?"
"I meant to come back in a week a free man. When I was called away to my uncle's sick bed, my mother made me promise not to speak, not to try to clear up things with Lady Kitty, till I returned. I did write to Mr. Graydon, but the letter never reached him." He blushed hotly and paused.
"Yes, I know," interrupted Lord Glengall. "When you came back?"
"When I came back, I found—Pamela engaged to you, and my cousin engaged to a great friend of mine. As it proved, she had never thought of me in that way; but her affection for my mother prevented her from speaking out."
"You should have written again to Mr. Graydon. You made Pamela unhappy."
"I thought he had not written because I said I would come as soon as I could. Then I was kept week after week, till the time turned into months. I am deeply sorry that I caused her unhappiness."
"This is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?"