"You are right," she said. "He was at one time—her lover."
"And you consider, in consequence, that he is unfit to become your husband?"
"No. He told me about it before he asked me to marry him. I accepted him, knowing it."
"Then he was trying to retrieve himself. He acted towards you, at any rate, like an honorable man."
Rachel laughed. "So I thought at the time."
"If you accepted him, knowing about his past, I don't see why you should have thrown him over. One dishonorable action sincerely repented does not make a dishonorable man."
"I did not know all," said Rachel. "I do now."
The Bishop looked into the fire.
Her next words surprised him.
"You really cared for Lord Newhaven, did you not?"