‘Never mention her again!’
‘What? They’ve cut you?’
‘I have cut them.’
She related what had passed.
Owen set his face into a frown. ‘Even so, Charlie; doltishness less pardonable than villainy! You were right to cut the connection, Lucy; it has been our curse. So now you will back to poor Honor, and try to make it up to her.’
‘I’m not going near Honor till she forgives you, and receives your child.’
‘Then you will be very ridiculous,’ said Owen, impatiently. ‘She has no such rancour against me as you have against her, poor dear; but it is not in the nature of things that she should pass over this unlucky performance.’
‘If it had been such a performance as Charles desired, I should have said so.’
‘Pshaw! I hadn’t the chance; and gloss it as you will, Lucy, there’s no disguising it, she would have it, and I could not help it, but she was neglected, and it killed her!’ He brought his hand down on the table with a heavy thump, which together with the words made his sister recoil. ‘Could Honor treat me the same after that? And she not my mother, either! Why had not my father the sense to have married her? Then I could go to her and get rid of this intolerable weight!’ and he groaned aloud.
‘A mother could hardly love you more,’ said Lucy, to her own surprise. ‘If you will but go to here,—when she sees you so unhappy.’