But to this she made no answer.
"Why did you keep it from me?" he asked, more sternly. "Do you think you had any right to do so?"
"Yes, I do," she answered, quickly, stung by the reproach in his voice. "I think so still. A promise should always be sacred."
"A promise—and to whom?"
"If you consider that a necessary question, I do not," she answered, with a touch of asperity in her voice. "You surely have lost somewhat of your customary acumen, Philip, to ask it."
"Then let me put it in another form," he replied, not in the least disturbed by her show of temper. "Did you promise—her?"
She looked at him for a moment, before she spoke, and the rebellious blood dyed her cheeks scarlet, her blue eyes flashed.
"I am not compelled to answer you," she said mutinously, "but I will do so. Yes, I promised her."
"But why, Esther, why? What induced you to make so absurd a promise? And, having made it, why, when such extraordinary circumstances arose, did you still keep your lips closed? Why did you not tell me that evening, when I came to you, and when you were in such grief and anxiety? Surely you must have known it would have greatly simplified matters."
But Mrs. Newbold was obstinately silent. She shut her lips firmly together and looked at Philip beneath a decided frown.