"Does anything trouble you, Miss Earle?" he asked. "I never
remember to have seen you so serious before."
She looked for a moment wistfully into his face. Ah, if he could
help her, if he could drive this haunting memory from her, if
ever it could be that she might tell him of this her trouble and
ask him to save her from Hugh Fernely! But that was impossible.
Almost as though in answer to her thought, Gaspar Laurence began
to tell them of an incident that had impressed him. A gentleman,
a friend of his, after making unheard-of sacrifices to marry a
lady who was both beautiful and accomplished, left her suddenly,
and never saw her again, the reason being that he discovered that
she had deceived him by telling him a willful lie before her
marriage. Gaspar seemed to think she had been hardly used. Lord
Airlie and Lionel differed from him.
"I am quite sure," said Lord Airlie, "that I could pardon
anything sooner than a lie; all that is mean, despicable, and
revolting to me is expressed in the one word, 'liar.' Sudden
anger, passion, hot revenge--anything is more easily forgiven.
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