Bea. All the rest are blanks. And sometimes worse than blanks.
Nor. (aside) This is damn’d awkward! (a further movement R.C.)
Bea. (rises) Lord Normantower, I owe you an explanation which I have had no opportunity of giving you. Your time is so much occupied, and we are so seldom alone.
Nor. (aside, R.C.) I wish somebody’d come!
Bea. (C.) When you first came to Ravenhurst, I made what must have seemed a very strange avowal.
Nor. Mrs. Selwyn, I have tried to forget it, and I hope you will assist me. And the best way to forget it, is not to say anything about it.
Bea. I have tried to be silent—but in justice to myself, I must speak. You know my marriage was not my own wish; but having married, do me the justice to believe I would have been a true and loyal wife, if Philip had been all you think he is.
Nor. Philip?
Bea. I have accepted my lot without a murmur. Even now, my only wish is that you should not think too harshly of my indiscretion; but at the sight of you, the old times came back so vividly, that words sprang to my lips which I should not have spoken, even under such provocation as mine.
Nor. I have known Philip nearly all my life, and this is the first breath I ever heard against him. I can’t help thinking you must be mistaken.