“As a gentleman who had given his promise to help and protect a lady, in the absence of the person whom she had depended on to join her, he refused to leave you to shift by yourself?”
“Unhappily, he refused on that account.”
“From first to last, you were absolutely innocent of the slightest intention to marry Mr. Brinkworth?”
“I answer, Sir Patrick, as Mr. Brinkworth has answered. No such thing as the thought of marrying him ever entered my head.”
“And this you say, on your oath as a Christian woman?”
“On my oath as a Christian woman.”
Sir Patrick looked round at Blanche. Her face was hidden in her hands. Her step-mother was vainly appealing to her to compose herself.
In the moment of silence that followed, Mr. Moy interfered in the interests of his client.
“I waive my claim, Sir Patrick, to put any questions on my side. I merely desire to remind you, and to remind the company present, that all that we have just heard is mere assertion—on the part of two persons strongly interested in extricating themselves from a position which fatally compromises them both. The marriage which they deny I am now waiting to prove—not by assertion, on my side, but by appeal to competent witnesses.”
After a brief consultation with her own solicitor, Lady Lundie followed Mr. Moy, in stronger language still.