“That you are misinformed. It wasn’t I who broke our engagement. I would gladly have kept it.”
“You would have kept it? Oh, when the sun is shining, you men, all of you, are always on hand; and when it rains, there isn’t a soul of you about.”
“But you are too unjust, after all. I shall lose my patience with you.”
She was as far as ever from keeping still, going on to worry him, like a wasp that hovers round you and tries to sting.
“It’s a great mistake for a man to get cross,” she said.
“I don’t have to report to you, Miss Sassenay. Let me tell you, however, that Miss Roquevillard broke our engagement of her own free will.”
“Out of generosity.”
“Without any consideration for my feelings or the pain it gave me.”
“In such circumstances you shouldn’t have let her break it,” declared Jeanne. Her cheeks had grown quite red, and her self-possession was gone. She was contradicting herself furiously, and he, too, was scarcely more calm than she was.
“And if her brother is convicted?” he demanded.