"The man she loved and lived with," returned Katherine, the words were low and clear.
"I am!" he replied, defiantly. Then a dreadful silence fell upon them.
Katherine dropped into a chair, and, resting her elbows on the table, covered her face with her hands.
"My God!" exclaimed De Burgh, advancing a step nearer. "How does she come here?"
Katherine could not speak for a moment; at last, and still covering her eyes and with a low quick utterance as if overwhelmed, she said,
"I have known her for some time. I found her dying of despair! I was able to befriend her, to win her back to life, to something like hope. She told me everything, except the name. We have ceased to speak of the past! I little knew, I could not have dreamed—I never suspected;" her voice broke, and she burst into tears, irresistible tears which she struggled vainly to repress.
"Why should you not suspect me!" exclaimed De Burgh, harshly. "Did you suppose me above or below other men?"
"Ah! poor Rachel! what a flood of unspeakable bitterness must have overwhelmed her, to find you here!"
De Burgh paced to and fro, bewildered, furious, not knowing how to defend himself or what to say.
"I am the most unfortunate devil that ever breathed!" he exclaimed at last, pausing beside the table and resting one hand on it. "Look here, Katherine, how can a girl like you—for, in spite of your mature airs, you are a mere girl—how can you judge the—the temptations and ways of a world of which you know nothing?"