CHAPTER XLI.
He looked at him calmly, but in her set, white face he seemed to read already his sentence! "Do you think it worth while, Mr.Trent?
There is so much, as you put it, to be explained, that the task, even to a man of your versatility, seems hopeless!" "I shall not trouble you long," he said.

"At least one man's word should be as good as another's--and you have listened to what my enemy"-- he motioned towards Francis--"has to say." Francis shrugged his shoulders.
"I can assure you," he interrupted, "that I have no feeling of enmity towards you in the slightest.

My opinion you know.

I have never troubled to conceal it.

But I deny that I am prejudiced by any personal feeling." Trent ignored his speech.
"What I have to say to you," he continued addressing Ernestine, "I want to say before you see your father.