‘Ah! there my shame comes in again! I wanted—for my father’s sake, not for my own—I need not tell you that—I wanted to keep my influence over you a little while—that is, until I could gain my father’s end. If I should succeed in rousing you to enter an action for the recovery of your rights, I thought my father might then be reconciled to my marrying Charley instead—’
‘Instead of me, Clara. Yes—I see. I begin to understand the whole thing. It’s not so bad as I thought—not by any means.’
‘Oh, Wilfrid! how good of you! I shall love you next to Charley all my life.’
She caught hold of my hand, and for a moment seemed on the point of raising it to her lips.
‘But I can’t easily get over the disgrace you have done me, Clara. Neither, I confess, can I get over your degrading yourself to a private interview with such a beast as I know—and can’t help suspecting you knew—Brotherton to be.’
She dropped my hand, and hid her face in both her own.
‘I did know what he was; but the thought of Charley made me able to go through with it.’
‘With the sacrifice of his friend to his enemy?’
‘It was bad. It was horridly wicked. I hate myself for it. But you know I thought it would do you no harm in the end.’
‘How much did Charley know of it all?’ I asked.