"What then?"
"I was presented to her grandmother as my father's daughter, not as her brother's—wife." She was breathless upon the word. All the color went out of her face. She looked faint and wan.
"But it couldn't be," he was repeating. "Didn't you speak of Tom at all?"
"No."
"Didn't she?"
"No."
He essayed a bald and unreasonable comfort.
"There, you see! You didn't mention him, and Electra hardly brings herself to do it to any one. He never ceased being a trial to her. You must let me say that."
"Ah, that wasn't it! Every time I might have spoken, a hand, a clever, skillful hand and cold as ice pushed me away. I can never speak of it. She won't let me."
He was with her, every impulse of his eager heart; but a tardy conscience pulled him up, bidding him remember that other loyalty.