Blind Love

After a short interval, the drawing-room door was opened again. Waiting

on the threshold, the Irish lord asked if he might come in.

Iris replied coldly. "This is not my house," she said; "I must leave

you to decide for yourself."

Lord Harry crossed the room to speak to her and stopped. There was no

sign of relenting towards him in that dearly-loved face. "I wonder

whether it would be a relief to you," he suggested with piteous

humility, "if I went away?"

If she had been true to herself, she would have said, Yes. Where is the

woman to be found, in her place, with a heart hard enough to have set

her that example? She pointed to a chair. He felt her indulgence

gratefully. Following the impulse of the moment, he attempted to excuse

his conduct.

"There is only one thing I can say for myself," he confessed, "I didn't

begin by deceiving you. While you had your eye on me, Iris, I was an

honourable man."

This extraordinary defence reduced her to silence. Was there another

man in the world who would have pleaded for pardon in that way? "I'm

afraid I have not made myself understood," he said. "May I try again?"

"If you please."

The vagabond nobleman made a resolute effort to explain himself

intelligibly, this time: "See now! We said good-bye, over there, in the poor old island. Well,

indeed I meant it, when I owned that I was unworthy of you. I didn't

contradict you, when you said you could never be my wife, after such a

life as I have led. And, do remember, I submitted to your returning to

England, without presuming to make a complaint. Ah, my sweet girl, it

was easy to submit, while I could look at you, and hear the sound of

your voice, and beg for that last kiss--and get it. Reverend gentlemen

talk about the fall of Adam. What was that to the fall of Harry, when

he was back in his own little cottage, without the hope of ever seeing

you again? To the best of my recollection, the serpent that tempted Eve

was up a tree. I found the serpent that tempted Me, sitting waiting in

my own armchair, and bent on nothing worse than borrowing a trifle of

money. Need I say who she was? I don't doubt that you think her a

wicked woman."

Never ready in speaking of acts of kindness, on her own part, Iris

answered with some little reserve: "I have learnt to think better of

Mrs. Vimpany than you suppose."