"I can only appeal to your compassion.

I am that Englishman whom--whom...." For a moment there was silence.

My companion was the first to speak.
"Poor boy!" she said; and her voice, now, was gentle and compassionate.
"You have been rudely undeceived.

Did Madame de Marignan pass herself off upon you for a widow ?" "She never named her husband to me--I believed that she was free.

I fancied he had been dead for years.