Again the bishop leant over his foolscap.
"Did you ever offer her marriage?" he asked abruptly.
"Repeatedly!"
The clear eyes looked up.
"Did you not tell her father this?"
"No; I couldn't condescend to tell him," said Carlton, flushing for the first time. "My lord, I have made no excuses. There are none to make. That was none at all."
His lordship regarded the changed face with no further change in his own.
"So you loved her," he said softly, after a pause.
"Ah! if only I had loved her more!"
"If excuse there could be . . . love . . . is some."