"
"Then why did you not?"
"Isn't it strange that now after all these years, when I have settled the
account with judge and jury, with state and law--that now I feel I must
tell you the truth. Madam, your ex-husband, Erris Boyne, was a traitor.
He was an officer in the French army, and he offered to make me an
officer also and pay me well in French Government money, if I would break
my allegiance and serve the French cause--Ah, don't start! He knew I was
on my last legs financially. He knew I had acquaintance with young rebel
leaders like Emmet, and he felt I could be won. So he made his proposal.
Because of your daughter I held my peace, for she could bear it less than
you. I did not tell the cause of the quarrel. If I had, there would
have been for her the double shame. That was why I held my peace--a
fool, but so it was!"
The woman seemed almost robbed of understanding. His story overwhelmed
her. Yet what the man had done was so quixotic, so Celtic, that her
senses were almost paralysed.
"So mad--so mad and bad and wild you were," she said. "Could you not see
it was your duty to tell all, no matter what the consequences.
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