“Oh, my poor girl! What have you done to her?”
“Me?” said Catherine angrily.
“What has happened, then?”
“Nothing, madam; nothing more than is natural in her situation.”
Margaret Van Eyck coloured with ire.
“You do well to speak so coolly,” said she, “you that are the cause of her situation.”
“That I am not,” said Catherine bluntly; “nor any woman born.”
“What! was it not you and your husband that kept them apart? and now he has gone to Italy all alone. Situation indeed! You have broken her heart amongst you.”
“Why, madam? Who is it then? in Heaven's name! To hear you, one would think this was my Gerard's lass. But that can't be. This fur never cost less than five crowns the ell; besides, this young gentlewoman is a wife; or ought to be.”
“Of course she ought. And who is the cause she is none? Who came before them at the very altar?”