She left the table, and drew nearer to him. 'It must have been terribly hard——'
Sounding the depth of sympathy in the gentle voice, he turned towards her to meet a check in the phrase—
'——terribly hard for you both.'
He stood there stonily, but looking rather handsome in his big, sulky way. The sort of person who dictates terms rather than one to accept meekly the thing that might befall.
Something of that overbearing look of his must have penetrated the clouded consciousness of the girl, for she was saying—
'You! a man like you not to have had the freedom, that even the lowest seem to have——'
'Freedom?'
'To marry the woman they choose.'
'She didn't break off our relations because I couldn't marry her.'