Will you prolong her punishment
in her child?"
Lady Lucy had covered her face with her hand. He saw her breath flutter
in her breast. And sitting down beside her, blanched by the effort he
had made, and by the emotion he had at last permitted himself, yet
fixing his eyes steadily on the woman before him, he waited for
her reply.
CHAPTER XII
Lady Lucy did not reply at once. She slowly drew forward the neglected
tea-table, made tea, and offered it to Sir James. He took it
impatiently, the Irish blood in him running hot and fast; and when she
had finished her cup, and still the silence lasted, except for the
trivial question-and-answer of the tea-making, he broke in upon it with
a somewhat peremptory--
"Well?"
Lady Lucy clasped her hands on her lap. The hand which had been so far
bare was now gloved like the other, and something in the spectacle of
the long fingers, calmly interlocked and clad in spotless white kid,
increased the secret exasperation in her companion.
"Believe me, dear Sir James," she said at last, lifting her clear brown
eyes, "I am very grateful to you. It must have been a great effort for
you to tell me this awful story, and I thank you for the confidence you
have reposed in me.
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