Annesley has not thought it right to say a word of
what had occurred. He has not dared even to tell an inspector of police
the events of that night. And the young man was your own cousin, to whom
you were known to have been promised for the last two years."
"No, no!" said Florence.
"I say that it was so. You were promised to your cousin, Mountjoy
Scarborough."
"Not with my own consent."
"All your friends,--your natural friends,--knew that it was to be so. And
now you expect me to take by the hand this young man who has almost been
his murderer!"
"No, mamma, it is not true. You do not know the circumstances, and you
assert things which are directly at variance with the truth."
"From whom do you get your information? From the young man himself. Is
that likely to be true? What would Sir Magnus say as to that were I to
tell him?"
"I do not know what he would say, but I do know what is the truth. And
can you think it possible that I should now be willing to accept this
foolish young man in order thus to put an end to my embarrassments?"
Then she left her mother's room, and, retreating to her own, sat for a
couple of hours thinking, partly in anger and partly in grief, of the
troubles of her situation.
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