Her voice broke on the last words, then she said,
“I had no idea that any man could think of anything – so wrong and so wicked.”
“It will never happen again,” he said consolingly, “if you are properly looked after and chaperoned.”
“I did not know that any man – who pretended to be a gentleman – would think of anything so diabolical.”
“I told you to forget it!” the Earl said firmly. “Sir Erwell is not a gentleman. He is a cad and a swine and I will make sure that he is turned out of every decent Club he belongs to.”
“But if you had not found me – I should have had – to marry him,” Devona quavered in a small voice.
The Earl held her a little closer.
“Don’t think about him anymore,” he said. “Just think instead of all the things we have to do and I do think that from now on we shall be
