"It is your right, madam, to say to me what you may like."
Von Rittenheim turned his stern face towards the training-field, and kept his eyes upon the moving forms that shifted below him.
Mrs. Carroll was unabashed.
"Dr. Morgan is an old and tried friend of mine and of all my family. He has seen life come and go at Oakwood. He rejoiced with us at Sydney's birth, and he was my chief help and support when her father and mother left us two here together, alone."
With a certain tenderness—the yearning that a man feels to protect the feeble and the helpless—Friedrich turned his softened eyes towards her.
"I tell you this because I can say truthfully that I know him to be faithful in friendship and incapable of treachery."
Friedrich turned again with tightened lips to his contemplation of the meadow.
"We heard of your being summoned to court and for what purpose."
Mrs. Carroll stopped, for a grayness settled over the young man's face, and the eyes that he turned upon hers were filled with horror.
"You had forgotten?"