Well I knew that he would be as careful in telling her as I could be. And if there was indeed bad news, I should be very glad of his assistance in breaking it to her. We went down together; and one glance at his face, as we entered the room, warned me to expect the worst. His grave words, 'I wished to see you alone for a few moments, Miss Haddon,' confirmed my fears.
'I wished to come—I would come, Mr Wentworth,' said Lilian, slipping her hand into mine; 'and you must please to let me stay, if what you have to say concerns me. You have come to tell us what you have ascertained about the paper I found; have you not?'
I put my arm round her, with a look towards him. She looked from one to the other of us in some surprise.
'Yes,' he hesitatingly replied; 'I have been to Scotland.'
'Then why do you look at me like that? Why are you both so strange? Mary, you ought to know there is nothing I should be more rejoiced to hear than that the marriage was a legal one.'
'It is not that, Lilian.—I have guessed aright; you have been proving the genuineness of the marriage during your absence; have you not, Mr Wentworth?' I asked.
'I grieve to say that there was no difficulty in proving it, Miss Haddon.'
'Grieve! grieve!—when it proves Papa to have acted like an honourable gentleman, instead of—— O Mary, you too!' turning from him to me, with a wounded look.
He saw now that the one thing had not yet occurred to her, and turned silently away. He could not strike the blow.
I drew her to a couch by my side, and said with faltering lips: 'I fear that it has not occurred to you that, though it might be better for Marian that her mother's marriage should be proved, it would be worse for you.'