She laughed.
"Have I no right to speak? I shall be a pauper also. Have I no right to say that I bought my title too dear?"
He admitted that she had; that she had been miserably wronged. He despised his brother and Miss Boyle together, but he would not say so much to her.
"Are you not a little sorry for me?" she asked, gazing at him intently.
"I am sorry for all of us," he answered bitterly.
The Countess rose, holding her opened fan against her chin.
"You cannot guess what my life is," she said slowly; "nor quite how I hate him."
Marius shuddered.
"I think that you have brought a curse upon us all," he said, with a dreary laugh. "You could wish no greater vengeance than you have, madam, in seeing us worthy of your scorn."
The bright silk skirts of the Countess rustled as she moved a little away.