"I want your reason," she said.
Reasons were not so easy, Eleanor found. She spoke slowly.
"I saw all through your trial that Dan was not like himself, that he was struggling with something stronger than he. He is a man who has always had terrible weaknesses, temptations——"
"He drinks," said Lydia, and there was a note of almost boastful triumph in her tone.
"No"—Eleanor was very firm about it—"in recent years only once."
"More than once, Eleanor."
"Only once, in a time of emotional strain. What was the emotion? You had just been sentenced. It came to me suddenly that if he were in love with you—it would explain everything."
"If he hated me—that would explain it too."
"The two emotions are pretty close, Lydia."
"Close?" Lydia exclaimed violently. "It shows that you have never felt either."