"You told him why you wanted to know?"
"I did."
She stood still for a few seconds to collect her strength; whole years of effort and agony were concentrated in that little interval.
"Shall you be going back to Queensland soon?" she asked quietly.
"I am going back to-morrow," he said—though he had not previously thought of doing so.
"Tell him when you see him—tell him from me—that I never knew anything—never, never, from the day I saw him last until to-night."
"It will break his heart to hear it, Mrs. Kingston."
"No—he will be glad to know that I was not utterly base. And I—I want him to know it."
"And shall I—can I—tell him that you were really not engaged when they said you were—when he thought you were waiting for him?"
She flushed deeply and drew herself up with a little stately gesture.