"
The sudden disclosure drew a cry of sympathy from Stella, which she was
not mistress enough of herself to repress. Now for the first time she
understood the remorse that tortured Romayne, as she had not understood
it when Lady Loring had told her the terrible story of the duel.
Attributing the effect produced on her to the sensitive nature of a
young woman, Madame Marillac innocently added to Stella's distress by
making excuses.
"I am sorry to have frightened you, my dear," she said. "In your happy
country such a dreadful death as my son's is unknown. I am obliged
to mention it, or you might not understand what I have still to say.
Perhaps I had better not go on?"
Stella roused herself. "Yes! yes!" she answered, eagerly. "Pray go on!"
"My son in the next room," the widow resumed, "is only fourteen years
old. It has pleased God sorely to afflict a harmless creature. He
has not been in his right mind since--since the miserable day when he
followed the duelists, and saw his brother's death. Oh! you are turning
pale! How thoughtless, how cruel of me! I ought to have remembered that
such horrors as these have never overshadowed your happy life!"
Struggling to recover her self-control, Stella tried to reassure Madame
Marillac by a gesture.
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