'I didn't tell him till the next morning. I can't dwell on the scene. He ran to her room himself; I followed. It was in gross disorder.'
'No!'
'I assure you, yes. There was no letter, no word for him. Presently his mother prevailed on him to withdraw.'
'It must have been a shock.'
'I prefer to leave it undescribed. Nobody could attempt to comfort him but our good Sarah Bonfill.'
'Ah, dearest Sarah has a wonderful way!'
'As the day wore on, she induced him to discuss the Trans-Euphratic Railway scheme, in which he is greatly interested. He will be a long while recovering.'
Repressing her inclination to seize an obvious opening for a flippant question, Lady Blixworth gazed sympathetically at the afflicted father.
'And your poor wife?' she asked in gentle tones.
'A collapse—nothing less than a collapse, Viola. The deception that Mrs. Trevalla practised—well, I won't say a word. I had come to like her, and it is too painful—too painful. But there is no doubt that she wilfully deceived us on at least two occasions. The first we forgave freely and frankly; we treated it as if it had never been. The second time was on that evening itself; she misrepresented the result of certain business matters in which she had engaged——'