"You can?" said Mattie. She spoke very quickly, but her heart leaped into her throat for an instant, and took away her breath.
"Miss Wesden confessed to me, only a week back, that she loved Sidney Hinchford still."
"Impossible!"
"You doubt my word, Miss Gray. Why should I attempt to deceive you?"
"What possible object could she have in telling you that?"
"I made her an offer of marriage," said Maurice, coolly, "and she rejected me. She did not scruple to confess to me her reasons; she was excited I must own, and, therefore, thrown off her guard."
"What did she say?"
"That she had never loved me, and that she would have died for Sidney. That it was all my fault—my wickedness—which had parted them."
"A singular confession for her to make," said Mattie, thoughtfully; "all my life I have been endeavouring to find the truth—the whole truth—and have always failed."
"You were not the confidante that I believed, then?"