You will go nowhere
without your child, you say? Did you think of that last night when your
lover was persuading you to leave Paris?"
"What!" cried Clarissa aghast. "Do you imagine that I had any thought of
going with him, or that I heard him with my free will?"
"I do not speculate upon that point; but to my mind the fact of his asking
you to run away with him argues a foregone conclusion. A man rarely comes
to that until he has established a right to make the request. All I know
is, that I saw you on your knees by your lover, and that you were candid
enough to acknowledge your affection for him. This knowledge is quite
sufficient to influence my decision as to my son's future--it must not be
spent with Mr. Fairfax's mistress."
Clarissa rose at the word, with a shrill indignant cry. For a few moments
she stood looking at her accuser, magnificent in her anger and surprise.
"You dare to call me _that_!" she exclaimed.
"I dare to call you what I believe you to be. What! I find you in an
obscure house, with locked doors; you go to meet your lover alone; and I am
to think nothing!"
"Never alone until last night, and then not with my consent, I went to see
Mr. and Mrs. Austin--I did not know they had left Paris."
"But their departure was very convenient, was it not? It enabled your lover
to plead his cause, to make arrangements for your flight. You were to
have three days' start of me.
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