_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."
Lord Harry began to look like a happy man, for the first time since he
had entered the room.
"I ought to have known it!" he burst out. "Yours is the well-balanced
mind, dear, that tempers justice with mercy. Mother Vimpany has had a
hard life of it.
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