But there was nothing tender in his eye, no tender tone softened the words which fell from his mouth.
"What!" he said, and in spite of his promise, his voice had never before sounded so stern,--"what! show that letter to another man; show that letter to Mr. Harcourt! Is that true, Caroline?"
A child asks pardon from his mother because he is scolded. He wishes to avert her wrath in order that he may escape punishment. So also may a servant of his master, or an inferior of his superior. But when one equal asks pardon of another, it is because he acknowledges and regrets the injury he has done. Such acknowledgment, such regret will seldom be produced by a stern face and a harsh voice. Caroline, as she looked at him and listened to him, did not go down on her knees--not even mentally. Instead of doing so, she remembered her dignity, and wretched as she was at heart, she continued to seat herself without betraying her misery.
"Is that true, Caroline? I will believe the charge against you from no other lips than your own."
"Yes, George; it is true. I did show your letter to Mr. Harcourt." So stern had he been in his bearing that she could not condescend even to a word of apology.
He had hitherto remained standing; but on hearing this he flung himself into a chair and buried his face in his hands. Even then she might have been softened, and he might have relented, and all might have been well!
"I was very unhappy, George," she said; "that letter had made me very unhappy, and I hardly knew where to turn for relief."
"What!" he said, jumping up and flashing before her in a storm of passion to which his former sternness had been as nothing--"what! my letter made you so unhappy that you were obliged to go to Mr. Harcourt for relief! You appealed for sympathy from me to him! from me who am--no, who was, your affianced husband! Had you no idea of the sort of bond that existed between you and me? Did you not know that there were matters in which you could not look for sympathy to such as him without being false, nay, almost worse than false? Have you ever thought what it is to be the one loved object of a man's heart, and to have accepted that love?" She had been on the point of interrupting him, but the softness of these last words interrupted her for a moment.