She looked very delicate and sweet in the shaded light, and the fire, suddenly flaming up, glinted on the gold of her hair.
He laughed, a little bitterly.
"Know me, do you?" he asked. "Is that why you married my brother after promising to marry me?"
She looked at him silently for a moment, affronted by his tone yet not knowing what to say.
"It is cruel of you to take that tone," she said at last. "You know very well that after what happened I—I couldn't——"
"Be decent to me again," he concluded for her. "You don't seem to find it so difficult to-day, although the charge against me has not been disproved."
"It's so long ago. You must see, yourself, that it's different now."
"Since I've become head of the family?" he suggested.
She drew herself up haughtily and walked towards the fireplace, where she stood looking down into the blaze.
"What would you have had me do?" she asked without looking round.