The whole thing was a piece of folly—nothing more. I swear to you, not a tithe of the scandal and tittletattle was true. LONA. Perhaps not; but then Betty came home—young, beautiful, idolised by every one—and when it became known that she was to have all our aunt’s money, and I nothing—— BERNICK. Yes, here we are at the root of the matter, Lona; and now you shall hear the plain truth. I did not love Betty then; it was for no new fancy that I broke with you. It was entirely for the sake of the money; I was forced to do it; I _had_ to make sure of the money. LONA. And you tell me this to my face! BERNICK. Yes, I do. Hear me, Lona—— LONA. And yet you wrote me that an irresistible passion for Betty had seized you, appealed to my magnanimity, conjured me for Betty’s sake to say nothing of what had passed between us—— BERNICK. I had to, I tell you. LONA. Now, by all that’s holy, I am not sorry I forgot myself as I did that day. BERNICK. Let me tell you, calmly and deliberately, what my position was at that time. My mother, you know, stood at the head of the business; but she had no business capacity. I was hurriedly called home from Paris; the times were critical; I was to retrieve the situation. What did I find? I found—and this, remember, had to be kept strictly secret—a house as good as ruined. Yes, it was as good as ruined, the old, respected house, that had stood through three generations. What could I, the son, the only son, do, but cast about me for a means of saving it? LONA. So you saved the house of Bernick at the expense of a woman. BERNICK. You know very well that Betty loved me. LONA. But I? BERNICK. Believe me, Lona, you would never have been happy with me. LONA. Was it your care for my happiness that made you play me false? BERNICK. Do you think it was from selfish motives that I acted as I did? If I had stood alone then, I would have begun the world again, bravely and cheerfully. But you don’t understand how the head of a great house becomes a living part of the business he inherits, with its enormous responsibility. Do you know that the welfare of hundreds, ay of thousands, depends upon him? Can you not consider that it would have been nothing short of a disaster to the whole community, which both you and I call our home, if the house of Bernick had fallen? LONA. Is it for the sake of the community, then, that for these fifteen years you have stood upon a lie? BERNICK. A lie?