"One last question," she said. "Am I to tell the General that it is your intention to marry your groom?"Her tone stung me into making an answer which I regretted the moment it had passed my lips.
"You can put it more plainly, if you like," I said. "You can tell the General that it is my intention to marry _your_ son."She was near the door, on the point of leaving me. As I spoke, she turned with a ghastly stare of horror--felt about her with her hands as if she was groping in darkness--and dropped on the floor.
I instantly summoned help. The women-servants carried her to my bed. While they were restoring her to herself, I wrote a few lines telling the miserable woman how I had discovered her secret.