“Bah! the hussey is not even a wholesome peasant-girl!” cried the father. “Who do you think she is, Mr. Grant?”
“I do not need to guess, my lord,” replied Donal. “I came now to inform your lordship of what I had myself seen.”
“She must leave the house this instant!”
“Then I too leave it, my lord!” said Forgue.
“Where’s your money?” returned the earl contemptuously.
Forgue shifted to an attack upon Donal.
“Your lordship hardly places confidence in me,” he said; “but it is not the less my duty to warn you against this man: months ago he knew what was going on, and comes to tell you now because this evening I chastised him for his rude interference.”
In cooler blood lord Forgue would not have shown such meanness; but passion brings to the front the thing that lurks.
“And it is no doubt to the necessity for forestalling his disclosure that I owe the present ingenuous confession!” said lord Morven. “—But explain, Mr. Grant.”
“My lord,” said Donal calmly, “I became aware that there was something between lord Forgue and the girl, and was alarmed for the girl: she is the child of friends to whom I am much beholden. But on the promise of both that the thing should end, I concluded it better not to trouble your lordship. I may have blundered in this, but I did what seemed best. This night, however, I discovered that things were going as before, and it became imperative on my position in your house that I should make your lordship acquainted with the fact. He assevered there was nothing dishonest between them, but, having deceived me once, how was I to trust him again!”