Brownie knew that this moment must come, and was grateful to the countess for so delicately opening the way for those explanations which were needful.
Lord Dunforth was glad to be left alone with her, yet man of the world though he was, he felt a terrible awkwardness stealing over him, and he scarcely knew how to break the ice.
It was a trying moment for the proud peer, but taking advantage of a pause in the conversation, he bent toward her, took one of her little soft hands in his, and asked, in eager, trembling tones:
“Can the child of my Meta’s care and love forgive an old man’s folly?”
Brownie’s lovely face crimsoned instantly, and the tears sprang unbidden to her eyes.
She had not expected any such humble apology from him. She thought he would be stately and dignified, and would yield his haughty spirit only so far as he could do so gracefully; and she had resolved to show him that a Douglas could be as proud as he; so she was wholly unprepared for anything so subdued as this.
“I have wronged you,” he went on, studying the beautiful face, “by judging you, without knowing you, and I have wronged Adrian in thinking that, with him, caste could ever outweigh love. He is a grand and noble boy—all my hopes are centered in him, and I could not endure the thought that his heart and his sympathy for any one’s misfortune should have run away with his judgment. But I should not have been so hasty—I should have allowed him to bring you to us, that we might have been convinced of the worthiness of his choice. And I cannot tell you, dear, how proud and happy, how relieved I am to find his selection a most fitting one after all.”
Ah! then he was only satisfied with her now because he had discovered that she was heiress to Sir Edgar Douglas, and a descendant of the one whom he had loved in his youth; not because of her own worthiness to be his wife, and her ability to make him happy. It was the pride of blood after all. Thus she interpreted his words.
She released her hand, and lifting her head proudly, said, with hauteur:
“Pardon me, my lord, if I cannot agree with you in thinking that I shall make Adrian any better wife for having noble blood in my veins. I have been brought up under the shadow of democratic institutions, and I believe that true worth should in every instance be considered before birth or position. My being a Douglas does not change in the least degree my character.”