'And turn you out of your own house? No, Roger. I cannot do that. And, Roger;--what is to be done about Hetta?' Hetta herself had retreated, leaving Roger and her mother alone together, feeling sure that there would be questions asked and answered in her absence respecting Mrs Hurtle, which her presence would prevent. She wished it could have been otherwise--that she might have been allowed to hear it all herself --as she was sure that the story coming through her mother would not savour so completely of unalloyed truth as if told to her by her cousin Roger.
'Hetta can be trusted to judge for herself,' he said.
'How can you say that when she has just accepted this young man? Is it not true that he is even now living with an American woman whom he has promised to marry?'
'No;--that is not true.'
'What is true then? Is he not engaged to the woman?' Roger hesitated a moment. 'I do not know that even that is true. When last he spoke to me about it he declared that the engagement was at an end. I have told Hetta to ask himself. Let her tell him that she has heard of this woman from you, and that it behoves her to know the truth. I do not love him, Lady Carbury. He has no longer any place in my friendship. But I think that if Hetta asks him simply what is the nature of his connexion with Mrs Hurtle, he will tell her the truth.'
Roger did not again see Hetta before he left the house, nor did he see his cousin Felix at all. He had now done all that he could do by his journey up to London, and he returned on that day back to Carbury. Would it not be better for him, in spite of the protestations which he had made, to dismiss the whole family from his mind? There could be no other love for him. He must be desolate and alone. But he might then save himself from a world of cares, and might gradually teach himself to live as though there were no such woman as Hetta Carbury in the world. But no! He would not allow himself to believe that this could be right. The very fact of his love made it a duty to him,--made it almost the first of his duties,--to watch over the interests of her he loved and of those who belonged to her.
But among those so belonging he did not recognise Paul Montague.