Then, as he stood silent, with a look of gentle pity and sorrow on his pale face, a sharp expression of apprehension flashed across her face.
“Say that again,” she said. “You—you mean to tell me that he has left me?”
Stephen lowered his head.
Una was silent, while the clock ticked three, then three words came swiftly and sharply from her white lips:
“It is false!”
Stephen started.
“Would to Heaven it were,” he murmured.
“Gone! left me without a word,” said Una, with a smile of scorn. “Can you ask—can you expect me to believe it?”
“No,” said Stephen. “No one would believe such base and hideous treachery without proof.”
“Proof!” she echoed, faintly, and with sudden sinking of the heart. “Proof! Give it to me!”