"Pardon me, sir, but that is impossible."
"It isn't, confound you!" said Braddock, who did not like being
laughed at. "I know women."
"You don't know your daughter."
"Step-daughter, you mean."
"Ah, perhaps the more distant relationship accounts for your
ignorance of her character," said Random dryly. "You are quite
wrong. I was in love with Miss Kendal, and asked her to be my
wife before I went on leave. She refused me, saying that she
loved Hope, and because of her refusal I took my broken heart to
Monte Carlo, where I lost much more money than I had any right to
lose."
"Your broken heart seems to have mended quickly," said Braddock,
who was trying to suppress his wrath at this instance of Lucy's
duplicity, for so he considered it.
"Oh, pooh, it's only my way of speaking," laughed the young man.
"If my heart had been really broken I should not have mentioned
the fact."
"Then you did not love Lucy, and you dared to play fast and loose
with her affections," raged Braddock, stamping.
"You are quite wrong," said Sir Frank sharply; "I did love Miss
Kendal, or I should certainly not have asked her to be my wife.
But when she told me that she loved another man, I stood aside as
any fellow would.
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