Dulce, in a vague fashion, takes note of her confusion.
"Not understand! But it is such a simple matter," she says, in a changed tone. She looks puzzled, surprised, and a distressed look comes into her eyes. "I mean even then, did you believe him innocent?"
"How can I remember?" says Portia, drawing her breath quickly.
The distrust grows upon Dulce's tell-tale face. She comes a step nearer to her cousin.
"No," she says, slowly—her eyes are fixed attentively upon Portia—"it is some time ago. But you can at least tell me this. Now—now—that you know him—when you have been beneath the same roof with him for some months, how is it with you? You feel that he is innocent?"
There is a terrible amount of almost agonized earnestness in her tone.
"How you catechise one," says Portia, with a painfully bald attempt at indifference that does not impose upon the slowly awakening suspicions of the other for one instant. "Let us change the subject."
"In one moment. I want an answer to my question first. Now that you have seen and known Fabian, do you believe him innocent?"
A most fatal silence follows. Had the question referred to any one else—had even any one else asked the question, she might have evaded it successfully, or even condescended to an actual misstatement of her real thoughts on the subject rather than give pain or be guilty of a social error. She would, in all probability, have smiled and said, "Yes, oh! yes; one must see that he is incapable of such an act," and so on. But just now she seems tongue-tied, unable to say one word to allay her companion's fears. A strange sense of oppression that weighs upon her breast grows heavier and more insupportable at each moment, and Dulce's great gleaming eyes of blackest gray are reading her very soul, and scorching her with their reproachful fire.
"Speak," she cries at last, in a vehement tone, laying her hand on Portia's arm, and holding her with unconscious force. "Say—say," with a miserable attempt at entreaty, and a cruel sob, "that you do not believe him guilty of this cursed thing."