‘My sister does not acknowledge your claim.’
‘The Countess of Fleetwood’s acts involve her husband.’
‘One has to listen at times to what old sailors call Caribbee!’ Chillon exclaimed impatiently, half aloud. ‘My sister received your title; she has to support it. She did not receive the treatment of a wife:—or lady, or woman, or domestic animal. The bond is broken, as far as it bears on her subjection. She holds to the rite, thinks it sacred. You can be at rest as to her behaviour. In other respects, your lordship does not exist for her.’
‘The father of her child must exist for her.’
‘You raise that curtain, my lord!’
In the presence of three it would not bear a shaking.
Carinthia said, in pity of his torture:—
‘I have my freedom, and am thankful for it, to follow my brother, to share his dangers with him. That is more to me than luxury and the married state. I take only my freedom.’
‘Our boy? You take the boy?’
‘My child is with my sister Henrietta!