The sudden crimson which mounted to her very temples at this juncture betrayed her secret.
"Talking to you!" cried Austin; "you mean making love to you! The infernal scoundrel!"
"It was—very dishonourable!"
"That's a mild way of putting it. What! he hung about my rooms when I had gone, to get you into a trap, as it were, at the risk of compromising you in a most serious manner! You never gave him any encouragement, did you, Clarissa?"
"I never meant to do so."
"You never meant! But a woman must know what she is doing. You used to meet him at my rooms very often. If I had dreamt there was any flirtation between you, I should have taken care to put a stop to that. Well, go on. You found Fairfax there, and you let him detain you, and then——?"
"My husband came, and there was a dreadful scene, and he knocked Mr.
Fairfax down."
"Naturally. I respect him for doing it."
"And for a few minutes I thought he was dead," said Clarissa with a shudder; and then she went on with her story, telling her brother how Daniel Granger had threatened to separate her from her child.
"That was hard lines," said Austin; "but I think you would have done better to remain passive. It's natural that he should take this business rather seriously at first: but that would wear off in a short time. What you have done will only widen the breach."