"Minnie Hescott!" Marian Bethune laughs aloud. "Minnie and Tom Hescott! Would a brother swear against a brother? Would a sister give a brother away? No. And I will tell you why. Because it is to the interest of each to support the other. Minnie Hescott would lie far deeper than I did to save her brother's reputation, for with her brother's reputation her own would sink. I lied when I said I did not know where your precious wife was at that moment, but I lied for your sake, Maurice—to save you from a woman who was betraying you, and who would drag you down to the very dust with her."
Rylton lifts his head.
"To what woman are you alluding?" asks he shortly, icily.
"To Tita," returns she boldly. "I knew where she was that night; I knew she would be with her cousin at that moment—the cousin she had known and loved all her life. The cousin she had cast aside, for the moment, to take your title, and mount by it to a higher rank in life." She takes a step towards him, her large eyes blazing. "Now you know the truth," says she, with a vehemence that shakes her. "Your love may be dead to me, but you shall know her as she is! Faithless! False as hell she is! She shall not supplant me!"
She stands back from him, her hands outstretched and clenched. She looks almost superb in her wicked wrath.
Rylton regards her steadily.
"You are tired," says he coldly. "You ought to get some rest. You will sleep here to-night?"
There is a question in his tone.
"Why not? In this my old home—my home for years—your mother's home."
"My mother is in Scotland," says he briefly.