'He sent for you, then?'
'Yes; that he'd like to see me upstairs. I told my maid to say that he was to come down to my room, but she brought back word that the Major couldn't come down, would I go up to him. So I had to go up to his garret. You never saw such a place. At last I got tired of listening to him—I couldn't stand there in the cold any longer—I was catching cold.'
'But you haven't told me what he said.'
'The usual thing: that it was the loss of his money that had brought him where he was; that if he only had a little money, if he could only keep himself, he would take his daughter away to live with him. He didn't know what would become of her in this house. Oh, he did go on. At last he burst into tears, he threw himself at my feet and said he'd forgive me everything if I'd only think of my daughter.'
'What did you say?'
'I said the best way to consider his daughter's interests, was by avoiding all scandal and wearing proper clothes.'
'And he promised he would wear the new suit?'
'Yes; he promised he would. He said that he knew all I said was true. That it wasn't my fault, that a woman couldn't be expected to respect a man who couldn't keep her, that he felt the shame of his position in the house, that it had broken his heart, that if he had lost his money it was not his fault, that the world was full of rogues, you know— you've heard him go on.'
'I should think I had. I don't know how I put up with him. Very often it is as much as I can do to prevent myself from running out of the room.'
Mrs. Lahens looked at her lover angrily.