"
"He could not then have twitted me with your words."
"If I have erred, Lady Laura, and brought any sorrow on you, I am
indeed grieved."
"It is all sorrow. There is nothing but sorrow. I have made up my
mind to leave him."
"Oh, Lady Laura!"
"It is very bad,--but not so bad, I think, as the life I am now
leading. He has accused me--, of what do you think? He says that you
are my lover!"
"He did not say that,--in those words?"
"He said it in words which made me feel that I must part from him."
"And how did you answer him?"
"I would not answer him at all. If he had come to me like a man,--not
accusing me, but asking me,--I would have told him everything. And
what was there to tell? I should have broken my faith to you, in
speaking of that scene at Loughlinter, but women always tell such
stories to their husbands when their husbands are good to them, and
true, and just. And it is well that they should be told. But to Mr.
Kennedy I can tell nothing. He does not believe my word."
"Not believe you, Lady Laura?"
"No! Because I did not blurt out to him all that story about your
foolish duel,--because I thought it best to keep my brother's secret,
as long as there was a secret to be kept, he told me that I
had,--lied to him!"
"What!--with that word?"
"Yes,--with that very word.
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