“I thank you,” said the general. “May I ask on what your opinion is founded?”
“On what has now passed, and on all that I have heard from Lady Davenant.”
He bowed. “You may have heard then, from Lady Davenant, of some unfortunate circumstances in my own and in a friend’s family which happened a short time before my marriage?”
Helen said she had.
“And of the impression these circumstances made on my mind, my consequent resolve never to marry a woman who had ever had any previous attachment?”
Helen was breathless at hearing all this repeated.
“Were you informed of these particulars?” said the general.
“Yes,” said Helen, faintly.
“I am not asking, Miss Stanley, whether you approved of my resolution; simply whether you heard of it?”
“Yes—certainly.”