“Still, one must do something. It is impossible to sit still and let that rascal come down on one. Something must be done. What, what?”
He waited, wanting the suggestion to come from her. As she was silent, knowing that what she had to say would wound him to the quick, he rushed his words.
“Money is all he is after, and I suppose we had better pay!”
She repressed her inclination to cry out, and said, softly: “But it is a fact, is it not, that you repaid the sum!”
“Every penny.”
“To pay would be to acknowledge that you had not done so.”
“That is true,” he said, gloomily.
“A bribe would tell fearfully against you, you may be sure, for even if it stopped him from taking proceedings, he would contrive that it should all leak out.”
He gazed at her bewilderingly. “But what else!—what remains? You are a poor comforter, Nathalie!”
“If only I could bear it for you!” she cried, passionately, her hands closing on his with strong support.