“They do not wish to see me themselves?”
“No.”
“Nor perhaps—wish me to return to them?”
“No.”
She nodded as she looked away again; in sheer defiance, he supposed. He did not guess that she did it to mask the irrepressible shiver which the news caused her.
He thought her, on the contrary, utterly unrepentant, and it hardened him to speak more austerely, to give his feelings freer vent.
“Had you done this thing with a gentleman,” he said, “there had been, however heartless and foolish the act, some hope that the matter might be set straight. And some excuse for yourself; since a man of our class might have dazzled you by the possession of qualities which the person you chose could not have. But an elopement with a needy adventurer, without breeding, parts, or honesty—a criminal, and wedded already——”
“If he were not wedded already,” she said, “I had been with him now!”
His face grew a shade more severe, but otherwise he did not heed the taunt.
“Such an—an act,” he said, “unfits you in your brother’s eyes to return to his home.” He paused an instant. “Or to the family you have disgraced. I am bound—I have no option, to tell you this.”