"Well, what?" he gasped.
"Why, then, my poor Griffith, we shall be bound in honor,—you and I,—not to meet for some months: perhaps for a whole year: in one word—do not hate me—not till you can bear to see me—another—man's—wife."
The murder being out, she hid her face in her hands directly, and in that attitude awaited his reply.
Griffith stood petrified a moment; and I don't think his intellects were even yet quite clear enough to take it all in at once. But at last he did comprehend it, and, when he did, he just uttered a loud cry of agony, and then turned his back on her without a word.
Man does not speak by words alone. A mute glance of reproach has ere now pierced the heart a tirade would have left untouched; and even an inarticulate cry may utter volumes.
Such an eloquent cry was that with which Griffith Gaunt turned his back upon the angelical face he adored, and the soft persuasive tongue. There was agony, there was shame, there was wrath, all in that one ejaculation.
It frightened Kate. She called him back. "Don't leave me so," she said. "I know I have affronted you; but I meant all for the best. Do not let us part in anger."
At this Griffith returned in violent agitation. "It is your fault for making me speak," he cried "I was going away without a word, as a man should, that is insulted by a woman. You heartless girl! What! you bid me sell you to that man for two dirty farms! Oh, well you know Bolton and Hernshaw were but the steps by which I hoped to climb to you: and now you tell me to part with you, and take those miserable acres instead of my darling. Ah! mistress, you have never loved: or you would hate yourself and despise yourself for what you have done. Love! if you had known what that word means, you couldn't look in my face and stab me to the heart like this. God forgive you! And sure I hope he will; for after all, it is not your fault that you were born without a heart. WHY, KATE, YOU ARE CRYING."