"Oh, no, no! It is true. He"—trembling—"he smothered her! Didn't you see how Edwy pressed that handkerchief across his own nose and mouth, as if to show something? And you tell me the poor boy has shown hatred to his father of late. It is plain. It is quite, quite plain. Oh, poor boy! Jack"—in a nervous whisper; she was now shaking from head to foot—"he must have seen it! Seen his father kill his mother!" She cowered as if in terror.
"Agatha, I entreat you to compose yourself. All this is mere supposition."
"It is not. It is all the awful terrible truth! And what frightens me is, that he will kill you too, if he can. You laughed at me last night. You made light of my fears, but I tell you to beware of him." She burst into bitter weeping again. "I am sure he will try to kill you, and you—you will do nothing to save yourself—not even for my sake. And yet you say you love me."
"Love seems a poor word," said Dillwyn. "My dear, dear girl, have pity on me, if not upon yourself. Don't cry like that. I'll do anything you like—anything, if you will only try and be happy again. Why, look here now, Agatha; it isn't altogether so easy a matter to murder a person without being found out as you seem to imagine."
"You, too, then"—eagerly—"think that—-"
"It is impossible to know what to think," said he, with some emotion. He paced to and fro upon the path, his head down-bent, pondering. Suddenly he lifted it. "Look here, this has got nothing to do with us in any way," he said. "Why spoil this hour because of it?"
"It has something to do with me, at all events," said the girl, who was now deadly pale.
"I have a weight on my heart, Jack! I must tell you about it." She drew her breath sharply, but with a great courage went on. "I think now—I hardly understood it then—but I think that before his wife died he—wished to marry me."
"Well!" Dillwyn's face was hard and cold. But he caught her to him, and pressed her face down against him. It would be easier for her to speak like that, where her face could not be seen. His poor, poor darling! What she had gone through!
"Well"—miserably—"I think now that but for me—he— might not have killed her! Oh, Jack!"