' 'Are you
serious?' I asked. 'Quite serious.' 'In that case I have to
inform your ladyship that you insist on more than you may
suppose: you insist on my breaking my engagement to Miss
Roseberry. Either I am to have the explanation that she has
promised me, or I refuse to marry her.' How do you think Lady
Janet took that? She shut up her lips, and she spread out her
hands, and she looked at me as much as to say, 'Just as you
please! Refuse if you like; it's nothing to me!'"
He paused for a moment. Mercy remained silent, on her side: she
foresaw what was coming. Mistaken in supposing that Horace had
left the house, Julian had, beyond all doubt, been equally in
error in concluding that he had been entrapped into breaking off
the engagement upstairs.
"Do you understand me so far?" Horace asked.
"I understand you perfectly."
"I will not trouble you much longer," he resumed. "I said to Lady
Janet, 'Be so good as to answer me in plain words. Do you still
insist on closing Miss Roseberry's lips?' 'I still insist,' she
answered. 'No explanation is required. If you are base enough to
suspect your betrothed wife, I am just enough to believe in my
adopted daughter.
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