She recoiled from him instinctively, and he espied the movement, and with an entreating voice he tried to make her stay.
“Miss Margaret, forgive me for having come. I learned last night of your sorrow. Then——”
“Mr. Bercy,” she said, coming forward.
This one formal phrase, firmly uttered, kept him at a distance, seemed to deny him the right to plead. Like her father, she deprecated pity. The man who had been betrothed to her bent his head, disconcerted, and kept silent.
“Why did you insist upon seeing me, sir, to-day?” she said again more gently.
He raised his eyes to her, with an imploring and humble look.
“Because to-morrow it would have been too late,” he sighed.
“Too late? To-morrow? You’ve something to tell me? Is it about Maurice?”
She forgot herself, in an instant, never dreaming that the matter could concern her. Had not all ties between herself and Raymond Bercy been broken off for more than a year? Were they not broken that day when he had not hesitated, in his mother’s house, to break his engagement to her and save the honour of his name? The young man had made no attempt to recapture her affection or her promise to him. Developments had broken on them like a tempest: the accusation by Mr. Frasne, Mrs. Roquevillard’s death, Maurice’s sentence for contempt, the shame and ruin of the family that resulted from it, and, last cruelty of all, the loss of the firstborn son, their future hope and stay. It was more than enough to justify one’s giving up, keeping away from people, forgetting. Was it not the privilege of unhappiness to hide itself? She had enjoyed her tears and her affliction by herself. She had jealously extracted the very essence of her grief, not sharing it with any one. By what right did this man come here again to impose his useless presence and his futile sympathy upon her? But no doubt something else had determined him upon this measure. Perhaps he knew something that would be of value in the defence of her accused brother. On such a pretext, and on this only, she could excuse him for having forced the guards and introduced himself into the house.
He made, no haste to explain himself. He was visibly under the dominion of some great inner trouble.