Then as she saw Malcolm's kind and pitying look, she continued in a low, constrained voice, as though something compelled her to speak--"It was not all Saul's fault.
I ought not to have believed him, for he does not always tell the truth.

After a time I found out that it was a lie, and then it was too late--Cedric knew I cared for him." "You really care for him ?" Malcolm was not aware how gently he spoke, but his tone thrilled through Leah; her manner softened still more, and her dark, unfathomable eyes were full of womanly tenderness.
"Is that such a strange thing ?" she asked in a dreary tone.

"Could not any woman love him ?--so young, so fresh, so true--so different from any one I have ever met in my unhappy life! What does it matter that I am older--what has age to do with it, when two people care for each other!" "Ah, I will grant you that," returned Malcolm slowly.
"I shall make him a good wife," she went on, "and in the years to come the old wounds will be healed, and I shall forget the terrible past.
Oh," recalling herself with difficulty, "why am I talking to you like this, and I have never even heard Miss Templeton's message." Then Malcolm sat down beside her and gently repeated Dinah's words.
"'Tell her from me that if she persists in marrying my poor boy, she will be marrying a pauper; that on the day the marriage takes place I shall alter my will, and that my sister Elizabeth will be my heir.

Tell her this, and I will write to Cedric.'" There was no answer to this; but he could feel the tremor that passed through her.

"She has written," he went on, "and by this time Cedric has her letter.