"So she said. Oh, when she knew Burden had lied to her about you, she repented her disloyalty, and told me how you hated the whole thing. I don't wonder she thought me a brute, never writing, never seeming to care whether she was alive or dead; I see now I was a brute; but it's you who've shown me that, not she. However, she will reap the benefit. I daresay three months ago I should have growled over such a marriage, felt inclined to wash my hands of the girl, perhaps, but now—now I'm delighted to have her married and—off my hands. That sounds callous, but I can't help it. It's true. The Frenchman seems a gentleman, and fond of her—trust Ellaline de Nesville's daughter to make men fall in love!—and I wish them both joy."
"But—but if he's poor?" I dared to question.
"Oh, that'll be all right. I'm so thankful for the way everything has turned out, I'd give her half my fortune. That would be asinine, of course; but I shall settle a thousand a year on her for life, and give her a wedding present of a cheque for twenty thousand, I think. Should you say that would be enough to satisfy them?"
"They ought to be distracted with joy," I said (though deep in my heart I knew that Ellaline is never likely to be satisfied with anything done for her. She always feels it might have been a little more). "But," I went on, "maybe it's selfish to think of myself now—but I can't help it for a moment. I have been so ashamed—so humiliated, I could hardly bear—and yet I know you won't, you can't, see that there's any excuse——"
"Didn't I tell you that I thought you very brave?" he asked, looking at me more kindly than I deserved.
"Yes. And I was brave." I took credit to myself. "But brave people can be wicked. I have hated myself, knowing how you'd hate me when——"
"I don't hate you," he said. "The question is—do you hate me?"
I gasped—because I was so far from hating him; and suddenly I was afraid he might suspect exactly how far. "No," said I. "But then, that is different. I never had any reason to hate you."
"Didn't Ellaline warn you I was a regular dragon?"
I couldn't help laughing, because that had been our very name for him. "Oh, well, she——" I began to apologize.