The Countess Lavinia caught up his broken sentence.
"Another! Ye do not need to tell me that. I am not so young nor such a fool, though maybe they thought so. But do not tell me it was not for himself. He was a ruined man."
"Do not fling that in my face!" cried Marius.
"In your face?"
"'Tis my brother," he answered with a great flush, "and the head of my house."
Her feverish eyes expressed scorn.
"I do not understand you. He hath the money, hath he not?"
"Curse the money!" exclaimed Marius. "I say it was for me and my visionary love affair he did this. Had ye told him!"
"Visionary love affair!" echoed the Countess hysterically. "Is that how ye phrase it? Well, it was more to me."
It had been more to him, and the knowledge of it—of how much it had been and how the last few moments had changed everything on heaven and earth, held him in a white silence.