"This is the first disgrace which has ever fallen upon us, and I'm heartbroken."
"I don't understand," he protested, in a voice so faint she could scarcely hear him. But his pallor increased; he sat upon the edge of the couch, clutching it nervously as if it had begun to move under him. He really felt dizzy. Myra Nell had a bottle of smelling-salts in her room, and he thought of asking her to fetch it.
"Even yet I can't believe it of you," she continued. "The idea that you, my protector, the one man upon whom I've always looked with reverence and respect; you, my sole remaining relative…. The idea that you should be entangled in a miserable intrigue…. Why, it's appalling!" Her lips quivered, tears welled into her eyes, seeing which the little man felt himself strangling.
"Don't!" he cried, miserably. "I didn't think you'd ever find it out." "I seem to be the only one who doesn't know all about it." Myra Nell shuddered.
"I simply couldn't help it," he told her. "I'm human and I've been in love for years."
"But think what people are saying."
He passed a shaking hand over his forehead, which had grown damp. "One never realizes the outcome of these things until too late. I hoped you'd never discover it. I've done everything I could to conceal it."
"That's the terrible part—your double life. Don't you know it's wrong, wicked, vile? I can't really believe it of you. Why, you're my own brother! The honor of our name rests upon you. The—the idea that you should fall a victim to the wiles of a low, vulgar—"
Bernie stiffened his back and his colorless eyes flashed.
"Myra Nell, she's nothing like that!" he declared. "You don't know her."