15/31 Allow me, Lady Isabel," he added, imperatively taking her hand to lead her from the room. "I will remain and deal with this business." But she hesitated and stopped. The injury her father had done these men was telling painfully on her sense of right, and she essayed to speak a word of apology, of sorrow; she thought she ought to do so; she did not like them to deem her quite heartless. But it was a painful task, and the color went and came in her pale face, and her breath was labored with the excess of her tribulation. "I did not know anything of all this; my father's affairs were not spoken of before me. |