He broke in on this, his expression so alarming that she almost cowered in her chair. “So I told you not to heed her, did I? I might have supposed it would come to that, might I not? I said it! I encouraged you to race! Of course! It was I who told you to throw good money after bad at faro, was it not, my girl? To borrow from usurers, too, and — ”
“Oh, Sherry, don’t — don’t! Oh, if only I had listened to Cousin Jane, and to Ferdy!”
“Ferdy?” he exclaimed. “Did he warn you, then?”
She nodded miserably. “Yes, but I didn’t heed him because he is just as silly as Cousin Jane, and I thought — I thought you would be pleased if I beat Lady Royston!”
An unearthly cry broke from the Viscount, and he clutched his locks with all the appearance of a man driven to the verge of distraction. Hero covered her face with her hands and wept.
The Viscount, regaining control over himself, took a hasty turn about the room, a heavy frown on his brow. He cast a brooding glance at his wife, and said shortly: “It’s of no use to cry. That won’t mend matters. The odds are you have ruined yourself already with the only people who signify.”
Hero could find nothing in this pronouncement to encourage her to stop crying, but she tried hard to do so, blowing her little nose and resolutely swallowing her sobs while his lordship continued to pace about the room. After watching him timidly for a few moments, she got up and ventured to approach him, saying in an imploring tone: “Oh, Sherry, pray forgive me! I will not race — indeed, indeed, I would never have engaged myself to do so had I known you would dislike it so excessively! Sherry, I did not mean to do wrong! Oh, if I were not so ignorant!”
He paused, looking at her. “No, you did not mean any harm. I know that well enough. Are you trying to tell me it is my fault? Well, I know that too, but it don’t make matters any easier.”
She caught one of his hands and held it in a warm clasp. “No, no, it is not your fault!” she said. “It is I who am so stupid and so tiresome, and I am so sorry!”
“Well, it is my fault,” he replied. “I should never have married you as I did. If I had not been such a rattle-pated fool I should have known — Well, there’s no sense in going over that now, for the mischief’s done. The thing is you were never fit to be cast upon the town with no one but me to tell you how to go on.”