It will end everything for me. But it would be better so. It is
now only cruelty to hide the truth, harsh to continue a friendship which
will only appal her in the end. If we had not met again like this, then
silence might have been best; but as she is not cured of her tender
friendship made upon the hills at Playmore, isn't it well to end it all?
Your conscience will be clearer, and so will mine. We shall have done
the right thing at last. Why did you not tell her who her father was?
Then why blame me! You held your peace to save your daughter, as you
thought. I held my tongue for the same reason; but she is so much a
woman now, that she will understand, as she could not have understood
years ago in Limerick. In God's name, let us speak. One of us should
tell her, and I think it should be you. And see, though I know I did
right in withholding the facts about the quarrel with Erris Boyne, yet I
favour telling her that he was a traitor. The whole truth now, or
nothing. That is my view."
He saw how lined and sunken was her face, he noted the weakness of her
carriage, he realized the task he was putting on her, and his heart
relented.
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