to me; I to myself nearly as much. I sent a
warning of the kind of husband for you--a poor kind; I just knew myself
well enough for that. You claimed my word--the blessing of my life, if I
had known it! We were married; I played--I see the beast I played.
Money is power, they say. I see the means it is to damn the soul, unless
we--unless a man does what I do now.'

Fleetwood stopped. He had never spoken such words--arterial words, as
they were, though the commonest, and with moist brows, dry lips, he
could have resumed, have said more, have taken this woman, this dream
of the former bride, the present stranger, into his chamber of the brave
aims and sentenced deeds. Her brother in the room was the barrier; and
she sat mute, large-eyed, expressionless. He had plunged low in the
man's hearing; the air of his lungs was thick, hard to breathe, for
shame of a degradation so extreme.

Chillon imagined him to be sighing. He had to listen further. 'Soul' had
been an uttered word. When the dishonouring and mishandling brute of
a young nobleman stuttered a compliment to Carinthia on her 'faith in
God's assistance and the efficacy of prayer,' he jumped to his legs,
not to be shouting 'Hound!' at him. He said, under control: 'God's name
shall be left to the Church. My sister need not be further troubled. She
has shown she is not persuaded by me. Matters arranged here quickly,--we
start. If I am asked whether I think she does wisely to run the risks
in an insurrectionary country rather than remain at home exposed to the
honours and amusements your lordship offers, I think so; she is acting
in her best interests. She has the choice of being abroad with me or
staying here unguarded by me. She has had her experience. She chooses
rightly. Paint the risks she runs, you lay the colours on those she
escapes.' She thanks the treatment she has undergone for her freedom to
choose. I am responsible for nothing but the not having stood against
her most wretched marriage. It might have been foreseen. Out there in
the war she is protected. Here she is with--I spare your lordship the
name.'

Fleetwood would have heard harsher had he not been Carinthia's husband.
He withheld his reply. The language moved him to proud hostility: but
the speaker was Carinthia's brother.

He said to her: 'You won't forget Gower and Madge?'

She gave him a smile in saying: 'It shall be settled for a day after
next week.'

The forms of courtesy were exchanged.