She made another attempt to leave the room, but he still stood in her way.
"I cannot—I will not give you up," he said, between his tightly locked teeth.
"You will be kind enough to let me pass, Mr. Hamblin." Mona returned, and ignoring his excited assertion.
"No, I will not," he fiercely replied.
She lifted her eyes, and met his angry glance with one so proudly authoritative that he involuntarily averted his own gaze.
"I beg that you will not cause me to lose all faith in you," she quietly remarked.
A hot flush surged to his brow, and he instantly stepped aside, looking crestfallen and half-ashamed.
Without another word, Mona passed from the room and entered her own chamber.
As soon as she had closed and locked the door, she sat down, and tried to think over all that had been said about her mother; this one subject filled all her mind to the exclusion of everything else.
But for Louis Hamblin's last remarks, and the betrayal of his real nature, and his selfish, ignoble purpose, she would have been grieved on his account, but she saw that he was unworthy of her regard, of even one sorrowful thought.