'Alice Hatfield! But—how long ago? How did he know her?'
'He married her yesterday, and they have gone to Servia together. Miss Stanley, it was with Count Litvinoff that Alice left her home.'
Clare held her peace for a moment. Her bewilderment would not let her find words. Then she went on, 'But he acted as though he believed Roland had taken her away. Oh, how could he have been so base and—'
'Do not judge him,' Petrovitch interrupted; 'no one knows how he may have been tempted, and he has repented and atoned for his fault in as far as he could.'
'There are some things that cannot be atoned for,' said Clare, compressing her lips. 'If it had not been for him this tragedy would never have happened. Oh, when I think—' She broke off suddenly.
'When you think that he would have married you, owing all to Alice Hatfield, you can find no words to speak of his baseness. Is it not so?'
She looked at him in mute inquiry. How did he know so much?
'Years ago,' he said, 'he and I were friends, and I love him still. He has told me much that has happened since last autumn. And I say, judge no man's actions, for of his temptations you cannot judge.'
Then they were both silent, and when Clare spoke again it was to inquire how the trains went, and so on.