"This is a funny world, and no mistake! I was very fond of you when I came upon you first," he said; "I was prepared to make no end of a fool of myself about you. And you snubbed me up and down dale; wouldn't have anything to do with me. You were quite able to get along without my friendship, thank you. There are some things that stick, you know, Camilla, and the way you shut down on me in those old days is one of those things. I must say you have a rummy notion of morality! I wasn't good enough to come near you, yet you had no hesitation whatever about robbing me when the time came along."
An exclamation like a sob escaped Camilla. He laughed.
"It is an ugly way of putting it," he said; "but it is the only way, and I fancy that with his peculiarly straightforward views, his working man's propensity for calling a spade a spade, Mr. Haverford will regard the matter in the same light."
The woman turned at this half passionately.
"You are not going to tell him! Oh, you cannot. You shall not!"
"It lies with you to decide whether I tell him or not."
He puffed out some smoke on to the damp air, and Camilla watched it wreathe and separate and finally fade into the mist that was gathering about the trees; watched it with eyes dry and hot with misery and shame and fear.
Suddenly Broxbourne turned to her.
"You must break with this man," he said; "I have a prior claim. I don't intend to let you marry him."
She stood still and looked at him with dilated eyes.