Clearly his intelligence had taken it, but this—the worst he could hear- -this that he had dreaded once and doubted, and smoothed over, and cast aside—could it be?
Richard said: "I told you all but the very words when we last parted.
What else do you think would have kept me from her?"
Angered at his callous aspect, his father cried: "What brings you to her now?"
"That will be between us two," was the reply.
Sir Austin fell into his chair. Meditation was impossible. He spoke from a wrathful heart: "You will not dare to take her without"—
"No, sir," Richard interrupted him, "I shall not. Have no fear."
"Then you did not love your wife?"
"Did I not?" A smile passed faintly over Richard's face.
"Did you care so much for this—this other person?"
"So much? If you ask me whether I had affection for her, I can say I had none."