Susannah interrupted.
"I do not credit you with believing what you say; even if you do," her voice strengthened, "I know that it is false. If you were well on the earth all the time, she was nevertheless in the clouds; if you found it a flattering diversion, she found it more."
My lord made a restraining gesture.
"Oh, but you must hear me!" continued Susannah. "She was sincere; if you did not consider her so you must know it now."
"You cannot answer for her," said the Earl, and again his natural pallor disappeared under a slow blush.
"I know," answered his cousin. "You spoke and she believed; she accepted you on her own level, and you must act up to it, Rose."
The Earl glanced at her under lowered lids.
"It would be no great honour to Miss Boyle," he said gravely, "to make her my second wife. Believe me, I respect and admire that lady too much to ever act with her the comedy my marriage must be."
Susannah clenched her hand impatiently on the mantelshelf.
"Oh, you talk, talk!" she cried, "and meanwhile Selina waits; do you suppose these sophistries occur to her, or if they do that they can comfort her in face of the fact that you do not write, you do not come, and she hears your name coupled with that of other women?"