Mildrid did not answer.
"But how did it happen?" repeated her mother more impatiently; "you must know that!"
"No, I don't know it—I only know that I could not help it—no, I couldn't!" She was sitting holding on to the bench with both hands.
"God forgive and help you! Whatever came over you?"
Mildrid gave no answer.
Her father calmed their rising excitement by saying in a gentle, friendly voice: "Why did you not speak to one of us, my child?"
And her mother controlled herself, and said quietly: "You know how much we think of our children, we who have lived such a lonely life; and—yes, we may say it, especially of you, Mildrid; for you have been so much to us."
Mildrid felt as if she did not know where she was.
"Yes, we did not think you would desert us like this."