There was a dark, stern look in his eyes, and she did not have the courage to come straight to the point.
"I believe you to be my friend," she said.
"I did not wish to distress my poor brother," he rejoined.
"Then you deceived me by professing what you did not feel?"
"I have no explanation to give."
"Yet you have remained here with me during my long illness."
"I had a duty to perform."
"Was it not out of love that you have stayed with me?"
"It was not."
She strove to look at him steadily, but her eyes wavered; his were unflinching.