"'Fore Heaven, sir! hast thou not given cause?" she exclaimed, recovering herself after a brief but terrible struggle with her feelings, for she was fast melting at his words. "Dost remember how thou didst leave me, and to what end? Hast forgotten thy crimes? I am mad to talk with thee. Thou art no longer Lester. In thee alone I see the freebooter, the bucanier, the terrible Kyd! Shame that a noble, for a light word spoken by a spirited maiden in anger, should thus have cast himself away!"
"I had other cause—thou dost yet believe me to be Lester—but—"
"I will hear no palliation—thou hast thrown thyself away—when, if thou hadst really loved me, thou wouldst have come back and sought to heal the breach."
"I would have done it—but—"
"Thou didst not. Therefore are we no longer aught to each other!"
"Thy words tell me what I have scarce dared to hope—that thou wouldst have received and pardoned me! But there was an impassable barrier—"
"Which was thy pride. Fatal, fatal has it been to thee."
"Nay, but a dark stain—"
"Enough, Robert of Lester! I will hear no more in extenuation or plea. Let this interview cease."
She turned from him as she spoke, though it evidently cost her an effort to do so, and made a step towards the door communicating with the main body of the mansion.