"It is a lie!" he repeated; but his lips were growing white, and great drops stood upon his brow.
"She tells me," resumed Lady Darrell, "that you loved her, and that you care only for Darrell Court, not for me. Is it true?"
"It is all false," he said, hoarsely—"false from beginning to end! She hates you, she hates me, and this foul slander has only been invented to part us!"
Lady Darrell looked from one to the other.
"Now Heaven help me!" she cried. "Which am I to believe?"
Grave and composed, with a certain majesty of truth that could never be mistaken, Pauline raised her right hand.
"Lady Darrell," she said, "I swear to you, in the presence of Heaven, that I have spoken nothing but the truth."
"And I swear it is false!" cried Aubrey Langton.
But appearances were against him; Lady Darrell saw that he trembled, that his lips worked almost convulsively, and that great drops stood upon his brow.
Pauline looked at him; those dark eyes that had in them no shadow save of infinite pity and sorrow seemed to penetrate his soul, and he shrank from the glance.