“There are no 'buts'!” he interrupted, fiercely. “I will kill him on sight!”
“Archie, my brother, think what you say! I do not know that he deceived me, and I do know I deceived myself.
“I can't help that! If he had not been there, you never would have made the mistake. The only pity is I was not on the ground at the time.”
“But, Archie, think of me. Think what an open scandal will mean. No one but you and me, and one other,” I added—remembering le père Jean—“knows anything of this now.”
“And what do we care about other people, Peggy? We Nairns are not used to asking leave for our actions; and so long as you yourself are not ashamed, I do not give a rotten nut for the rest of the world. It is no question of the personal feeling at all; it is the principle! I have no personal quarrel with Maxwell; on the contrary, I like him. He was a brother to me in Louisbourg; but, thank God! I can sink my likings and dislikings, when it comes to a case such as this. No, no, Peggy; you'd best leave things in my hands.”
“No, Archie, I will not! There has been heart-break and misery enough over this as it is, without adding more.”
“But this will wipe it all out. Cannot you understand?” he said, with a touch of impatience.
“Archie, cannot you understand that, however clearly I regret my own folly, I cannot in a moment stamp out the feeling in which I have lived all these years?”
“You don't tell me you care for the fellow yet, Peggy?” he cried, in a tone of genuine astonishment.
“I am afraid I do.”