Sink or Swim? , Volume II by Matilda Charlotte Houstoun

I suppose it must be inferred that John Beacham _was_ slow, for / certainly the Colonel's revelation took him entirely by surprise. For a / few moments that feeling, joined to one of extreme anger and contempt, / kept him silent, and then he said, in a tone which Norcott, hardened as / he was, found it difficult to bear patiently,

"I should never have thought that a man would have found it so easy to / own himself a villain; for you are a villain, Colonel Norcott, whether / you are, or are not -- what I imagine you mean to imply -- the father -- " and / his big honest heart throbbed as though it would have burst its / bonds -- "of my wife."