“‘Only too true,’ I answered.
“‘And you—pardon the question—you assure me, Lady Pelham, that you were merely on ordinary terms of intimacy with the Duke of Launceston?’
“‘I treated him as I did any other guest of my husband, no differently. No man could have been more perfectly indifferent to me.’
“‘Then there is not the least ground for this action?’ he continued.
“‘Not the slightest, not the faintest; there is no shadow of such a pretext.’
“Mr. Hewson sat silent for some minutes, then he said:
“‘Will you prepare to hear a very fatal truth, Lady Pelham, one that will darken your whole life?’
“‘Nothing can surprise or hurt me now,’ I replied.
“‘I must tell you that it is my opinion you have married a very wicked, designing man. I could almost believe that he had married you, seeing your beauty, for this very purpose.’
“‘He could not be so wicked,’ I cried; ‘no man living could be so lost to all honor and goodness!’