Last night! Sara was surprised.
"She fell in love with you yesterday, Sara, and I thought well to let her know what you really were--how true you had been to me."
Sara was silent. It was in her nature to be true; and, as she believed, it was in her nature to be able to suffer.
"There were times when I felt tempted to wish I had stayed at home and battled with it," resumed Captain Davenal, after a pause. "But in that case the scandal would probably have gone forth to the world. As it was, no living being knew of it, save you and my father."
"And Mr. Alfred King," she said. Another name also occurred to her, but she did not mention it--that of Oswald Cray.
"Alfred King? Sara, my dear, I don't care to enter into particulars with you, but he was with me in the mess; more morally guilty, though less legally so, than I was. He has never told it, I can answer for, for his own sake."
"He always spoke to me of being only a sort of agent in the affair," she said. "He intimated that the money was due to other parties."
"Was due from himself, then. But it is over and done with: let it drop. And now, Sara, you must allow me to ask you a personal question: are you still engaged to Oswald Cray?"
The demand was so unexpected, the subject so painful, that Sara felt the life-blood leave her heart for her face. "I am not engaged to Oswald Cray," she said in a low tone. "I--I cannot say that I ever was engaged to him."
A pause. "But--surely there was some attachment?"