"You mean that you would have married me and told me nothing of circumstances in your life, so momentous that they have practically exercised in this matter of your return to politics a compelling influence over you?"
"I am sure," he said, "that I should not have told you!"
His unhappiness moved her. She still lingered. She drew a little breath, and she went a good deal further than she had meant to go.
"It has been suggested to me," she said, "that your reappearance was due to a woman's influence. Is this true?"
"A woman had something to do with it," he admitted.
"Who is she?"
"Her name," he answered, "is Blanche Phillimore. It was the person to whom you yourself alluded."
The Duchess maintained her self-control. She was quite pale, however, and her tone was growing ominously harder.
"Is she a connection of yours?"
"No!"