And yet, now when I came to think of it, that might not have bettered matters, and perhaps would only have added to the transaction a degree of moral turpitude which at present was lacking, since even married men are sometimes weak.
The truth was that Maqueda's attractions were extraordinarily great.

To her remarkable beauty she added a wonderful charm of manner and force of mind.

Also her situation must touch the heart and pity of any man, so helpless was she in the midst of all her hollow grandeur, so lonely amongst a nation of curs whom she strove in vain to save, and should she escape destruction with them, doomed to so sad and repulsive a fate, namely to become the wife of a fat poltroon who was her own uncle.

Well, we know to what emotion pity is akin, and the catastrophe had occurred a little sooner than I had expected, that was all.
Doubtless to her, in comparison with the men to whom she was accustomed and allowed by etiquette to take as her associates, this brave and handsome young Englishman, who had come into her care sick and shattered after the doing of a great deed, must have seemed a veritable fairy prince.

And she had helped to nurse him, and he had shown himself grateful for her kindness and condescension, and--the rest followed, as surely as the day follows the night.
But how would it end?
Sooner or later the secret must come out, for already the Abati nobles, if I may call them so for want of a better name, and especially Joshua, were bitterly jealous of the favour their lady showed to the foreigner, and watched them both.