“Mrs Hallam—Millicent, my child, what am I to say to you?” he cried at length. “How am I to speak without wounding you? I would not give you pain to add to that which you already suffer.”
She looked at him angrily. His words seemed to her, in her overstrained anxiety, hypocritical and evasive.
“I asked you why my husband is cast into prison for the crimes of others?”
Sir Gordon gazed at her pityingly.
“You do not answer,” she said. “Then tell me this: Are you satisfied with the degradation he has already suffered? Is he not to be set free?”
“Can you not spare me, Mrs Hallam? Will you not spare yourself?”
“No. I cannot spare you. I cannot spare myself. My husband is helpless: the fight against his enemies must be carried on by me.”
“His enemies, Mrs Hallam? Who are they? Himself and his companions.”
“You, and that despicable creature who has professed to be our friend, the companion of my child. I saw you planning it together with your wretched menial, Thickens.”
Sir Gordon shook his head sadly.