That reproach roused him.
“I own that I come from Miss Westerfield,” he answered. “She addresses a request to you through me.”
“I refuse to grant it.”
“Hear it first.”
“No!”
“Hear it—in your own interest. She asks permission to leave the house, never to return again. While she is still innocent—”
His wife eyed him with a look of unutterable contempt. He submitted to it, but not in silence.
“A man doesn’t lie, Catherine, who makes such a confession as I am making now. Miss Westerfield offers the one atonement in her power, while she is still innocent of having wronged you—except in thought.”
“Is that all?” Mrs. Linley asked.
“It rests with you,” he replied, “to say if there is any other sacrifice of herself which will be more acceptable to you.”