“I——”
“I haven’t finished yet. Counsel for the prosecution first, if you please; afterward we shall be happy to hear what you have to say in defense——”
“And find me guilty, whatever that may be,” said Doris.
“Here, too, is a young woman with two lovers——”
“Oh, don’t,” muttered Doris, wincing; but Lady Despard declined to show mercy.
“My dear, I am going to continue. It is well that you should hear the truth from some one, and, as I am the only person who dares tell it to your royal highness, why, I’ll do my duty. Two lovers. One was utterly unworthy of you, poor fellow, an adventurer, who—but never mind. He repented in time, and I am not the woman to be hard upon him. The other is a young man who loved you devotedly, and is all that is honorable and lovable—and miserable! He never wronged you in any way, and, though I can understand your sending the penitent adventurer about his business, I cannot understand how you could let poor Cecil go to this beastly little war, where, as likely as not, he will either be killed by some dirty, half-naked savage, or die of the yellow, or blue, or black, fever, whichever it is they have over there. Yes, I must say I do pity Lord Cecil, who never did anything——”
“But transfer his affections to another woman,” murmured Doris, her face and neck a vivid crimson.
Lady Despard sank back onto the cushions and laughed with evident enjoyment.
“You little goose, I was leading you on to showing your hand. And you didn’t see it! Of course, that is his offense. We could forgive the adventurer-lover who would have sold us for filthy lucre, and who only repented and drew back at the last moment; oh, yes, we can forgive him; but the other—he must be sentenced to lifelong disappointment, because possibly he was caught, lured into the net of the cleverest and most unscrupulous woman in England, and the cleverest and most unscrupulous man to back her. And we are not proud, we are not unforgiving! Oh, no, certainly not!” she summed up, ironically.
Doris screened her face with her hands.