“Well, let me know the worst of them at once,” said the young man, who was sitting upright in his chair, with a flush in his cheeks and very bright eyes.
“Really, I scarcely like—I don’t think we had better enter upon this very painful subject until we have asked Dr. Graham’s opinion as to whether——”
“Dr. Graham be hanged!” burst out Gerard, with a momentary return of his old boyish impetuosity and spirit. “I beg your pardon, uncle, but consider that this suspense is worse than almost any knowledge could be. Tell me at once what the news was that they brought you this morning.”
“Well, to tell you the truth, it’s only the confirmation of fears which I myself entertained. For I must tell you, Gerard, that I have had grave doubts as to your wife’s prudence.”
“Well. Go on.”
“If I must speak, you must promise to listen quietly.”
“I will—without a word,” said Gerard hoarsely, clutching the sides of his chair, and keeping his head bent.
The viscount and his sons exchanged apprehensive looks; but they all felt that now there was nothing to be done but to go on with the story, and risk its effect upon the convalescent.
“Your wife, unfortunately, has got into the society of people who are undesirable in every way. She is passing under a name which is not her own. She calls herself Madame Rocada, a title which is, I regret to say, that formerly used by a well-known woman of foreign extraction, who used to keep a gaming-house in Paris.”
The viscount paused, but Gerard said nothing, and remained in the same position as before. His uncle went on:—