‘No,’ said she.
‘How was that?’
‘He has sailed.’
‘A very good thing for both, I say. I believe you would have married him, if you could have overtaken him.’
‘That would I!’ she said.
‘Good God!’
‘I would marry a tinker for that matter; I have reasons for being any man’s wife,’ she said recklessly, ‘only I should prefer to drown myself.’
Louis held his breath, and stood rigid at the meaning her words conveyed.
‘But Louis, you don’t know all!’ cried Viviette. ‘I am not so bad as you think; mine has been folly—not vice. I thought I had married him—and then I found I had not; the marriage was invalid—Sir Blount was alive! And now Swithin has gone away, and will not come back for my calling! How can he? His fortune is left him on condition that he forms no legal tie. O will he—will he, come again?’
‘Never, if that’s the position of affairs,’ said Louis firmly, after a pause.