I ask your
pardon that I deceived you, Lord Farintosh, and feel ashamed for myself
that I could have consented to do so."
"Do you mean," cried the young Marquis, "that after my conduct to you--
after my loving you, so that even this--this disgrace in your family
don't prevent my going on--after my mother has been down on her knees to
me to break off, and I wouldn't--no, I wouldn't--after all White's
sneering at me and laughing at me, and all my friends, friends of my
family, who would go to--go anywhere for me, advising me, and saying,
'Farintosh, what a fool you are! break off this match,'--and I wouldn't
back out, because I loved you so, by Heaven, and because, as a man and a
gentleman, when I give my word I keep it--do you mean that you throw me
over? It's a shame--it's a shame!" And again there were tears of rage and
anguish in Farintosh's eyes.
"What I did was a shame, my lord," Ethel said, humbly; "and again I ask
your pardon for it. What I do now is only to tell you the truth, and to
grieve with all my soul for the falsehood--yes the falsehood--which I
told you, and which has given your kind heart such cruel pain.
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