"How can you doubt it!"
"My dear, this is a delicate subject for me to enter on."
"And a shameful subject for me!" Iris broke out bitterly. "Hugh! you
are an angel, by comparison with that man--how debased I must be to
love him--how unworthy of your good opinion! Ask me anything you like;
have no mercy on me. Oh," she cried, with reckless contempt for
herself, "why don't you beat me? I deserve it!"
Mountjoy was well enough acquainted with the natures of women to pass
over that passionate outbreak, instead of fanning the flame in her by
reasoning and remonstrance.
"Your father will not listen to the expression of feeling," he
continued; "but it is possible to rouse his sense of justice by the
expression of facts. Help me to speak to him more plainly of Lord Harry
than you could speak in your letters. I want to know what has happened,
from the time when events at Ardoon brought you and the young lord
together again, to the time when you left him in Ireland after my
brother's death. If I seem to expect too much of you, Iris, pray
remember that I am speaking with a true regard for your interests."
In those words, he made his generous appeal to her. She proved herself
to be worthy of it.
Stated briefly, the retrospect began with the mysterious anonymous
letters which had been addressed to Sir Giles.
Lord Harry's explanation had been offered to Iris gratefully, but with
some reserve, after she had told him who the stranger at the milestone
really was. "I entreat you to pardon me, if I shrink from entering into
particulars," he had said. "Circumstances, at the time, amply justified
me in the attempt to use the banker's political influence as a means of
securing Arthur's safety. I knew enough of Sir Giles's mean nature to
be careful in trusting him; but I did hope to try what my personal
influence might do. If he had possessed a tenth part of your courage,
Arthur might have been alive, and safe in England, at this moment. I
can't say any more; I daren't say any more; it maddens me when I think
of it!" He abruptly changed the subject, and interested Iris by
speaking of other and later events. His association with the
Invincibles--inexcusably rash and wicked as he himself confessed it to
be--had enabled him to penetrate, and for a time to defeat secretly,
the murderous designs of the brotherhood. His appearances, first at the
farmhouse and afterwards at the ruin in the wood were referable to
changes in the plans of the assassins which had come to his knowledge.
When Iris had met with him he was on the watch, believing that his
friend would take the short way back through the wood, and well aware
that his own life might pay the penalty if he succeeded in warning
Arthur. After the terrible discovery of the murder (committed on the
high road), and the escape of the miscreant who had been guilty of the
crime, the parting of Lord Harry and Miss Henley had been the next
event. She had left him, on her return to England, and had refused to
consent to any of the future meetings between them which he besought
her to grant.