"And you told her why?"
"That I might find out whether her husband were still alive."
"But—" The Doctor hesitated as he asked the next question. He knew, however, that it had to be asked, and went on with it. "Did she know that you loved her?" To this the other made no immediate answer. The Doctor was a man who, in such a matter, was intelligent enough, and he therefore put his question in another shape. "Had you told her that you loved her?"
"Never,—while I thought that other man was living."
"She must have guessed it," said the Doctor.
"She might guess what she pleased. I told her that I was going, and I went."
"And how was it, then?"
"I went, and after a time I came across the very man who is here now, this Robert Lefroy. I met him and questioned him, and he told me that his brother had been killed while fighting. It was a lie."
"Altogether a lie?" asked the Doctor.
"How altogether?"