At these cruel words she arose to her feet with an effort and leaned heavily against the wall, while her husband took his seat in stern anger, as if she were a criminal brought before him for sentence.
"You are Mrs. Belswin?"
"Yes."
"My daughter's companion?"
"She is mine as well as yours."
"Silence!" he said, sternly. "Do not dare to claim the child which you left so cruelly twenty years ago. Have you no shame?"
"Shame!" she replied bitterly. "Yes, I have shame. I know what shame is--twenty years of bitter, cruel shame. God of mercy, twenty years!"
"Twenty thousand years would not be too much for your sin."
"Are you so pure yourself that you can judge me so harshly?"
"I am not here to argue such a question," he said, coldly, with a cruel look in his eyes. "I want to know what you are doing here."