"Perhaps you didn't care," she said, "after all. Well, you gave me reason to think so. We were to have been married in the autumn."
"I kept faith!" he cried. "But you—what have you made of it all?"
A frightened look settled in her intent eyes.
"I do not know; I feel I have done something terrible. It was not to be avoided—in any way escaped. I also kept faith in my heart. What had I for him but hate?"
It jarred on Marius that she put this into words.
"We must not blame Rose," he said, with pale lips. "He did not know. Had you told him——"
"I had no chance. Was he likely to have listened? He wanted the money."
That stung the Earl's brother.
"My lord wanted the money that he might help me. He heard of—our meeting. Oh, Heaven, he meant we should not be hampered for lack of this money! For himself I think he would have done otherwise; indeed, I believe there was another——"
Then, as the whole miserable confusion and tangle showed itself more clearly to his startled soul, he was dumb.