"It would have been more accurate in me to have said a sort of
reputed left-handed cousin."
"A reputed left-handed cousin! And what sort of relationship may
that be? Faith, you dazzle me with your lucidity."
"It requires to be explained."
"That is what I have been telling you. But you seem very reluctant
with your explanations."
"Oh, no. It is only that they are so unimportant. But be you the
judge. Her uncle, M. de Kercadiou, is my godfather, and she and I
have been playmates from infancy as a consequence. It is popularly
believed in Gavrillac that M. de Kercadiou is my father. He has
certainly cared for my rearing from my tenderest years, and it is
entirely owing to him that I was educated at Louis le Grand. I owe
to him everything that I have - or, rather, everything that I had;
for of my own free will I have cut myself adrift, and to-day I
possess nothing save what I can earn for myself in the theatre or
elsewhere."
She sat stunned and pale under that cruel blow to her swelling pride.
Had he told her this but yesterday, it would have made no impression
upon her, it would have mattered not at all; the event of to-day
coming as a sequel would but have enhanced him in her eyes.
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