"Yes. That was unfortunate. She—Tessie—your mother," hastily, "should not have told her."
"After all, I'm glad she did," says Rylton warmly. "What does it matter? And, at all events, it makes the thing clear to Tita. It is quite as well that she should know that I was a cur of the worst description when I asked her to marry me."
"You were never that," says his cousin, tears rising in her eyes. "You have been wrong in many ways, but I still believe in you, and I think that when you married Tita you meant to be true to her."
"I did, God knows!" says he. "It was the least I could do, considering how I had taken advantage of her. But she——"
"Well?" says Margaret.
"Hescott——"
"Oh, Maurice, don't! Don't be unjust over that. I tell you there was nothing in that. The poor child has been foolish, faulty, absurd, in many ways, but daylight is not sweeter or more pure. I tell you this as my last word. And, Maurice, in time—in a month or so—come and see us——"
"Us? Her? No!"
"Come and see me, then. I shall be, as you know, in town. Do come."
"Well, let me know first that she won't be there."