Dr. Scott made a gesture of dissent, but Mrs. Tice supported Dora.
"She is right, Mr. Allen. If Joad speaks you are lost. Talk it over with Miss Carew, sir, and I'll hear what you think when I come back. Just now I must look after the house."
When she left the room, Allen waited until the door was closed, then turned to look at Dora. She was sitting by the side of the sofa with a drooping head, and a sad expression on her face. Moved by her silent sorrow, and ascribing it rightly to the unhappy position in which they stood to one another, he took her hands within his own.
"Do not look so sad, Dora," he said softly; "I shall be better shortly. It is the knowledge of what was told to me by Mr. Edermont which has made me ill. But I shall recover, my dear, and bear my troubles like a man."
Dora burst into tears.
"I can only bear my troubles like a woman," she sobbed. "Oh, Allen, Allen! what have we done, you and I, that we should be made so unhappy? You are in a very dangerous position, and I can save you only by marrying a man I detest."
"Dora, you must not marry Joad. I cannot accept safety at the price of your lifelong misery."
"What does it matter about my marrying that creature?" she said, drying her tears. "I can never become your wife."
Allen groaned.
"True, true; ah, how true it is that the sins of the father are visited on the children! It is shameful that we should suffer as we do for the evil of others."