Something in
her presence silenced every one. There fell a sudden stillness
over all the assembly--a stillness so deep that the eager,
frightened whispering, and sharp rustling of dresses among the
women in the library, became audible from the other side of the
closed door.
"Charles," she said, slowly advancing; "why do you look--" She
stopped, and fixed her eyes again on her son more earnestly than
before; then turned them suddenly on Trudaine. "You are looking
at my son, sir," she said, "and I see contempt in your face. By
what right do you insult a man whose grateful sense of his
mother's obligations to you made him risk his life for the saving
of yours and your sister's? By what right have you kept the
escape of my son's wife from death by the guillotine--an escape
which, for all I know to the contrary, his generous exertions
were instrumental in effecting--a secret from my son? By what
right, I demand to know, has your treacherous secrecy placed us
in such a position as we now stand in before the master of this
house?"
An expression of sorrow and pity passed over Trudaine's face
while she spoke. He retired a few steps, and gave her no answer.
The general looked at him with eager curiosity, and, dropping his
hold of Danville's arm, seemed about to speak; but Lomaque
stepped forward at the same time, and held up his hand to claim
attention.
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