No answer.
"You do! Oh, mother, how are we to go on living after this? What makes you think it? Quick! has he written to you?"
Mrs. Ringrose started violently. "Who put that into your head?" she cried out sharply.
"Nobody. I only wondered if there had been a letter, and I asked Lowndes, but he said you said there had not."
"Was that not enough for you?"
"Oh, mother, tell me the truth!"
The poor lady groaned aloud.
"God knows I meant to keep it to myself!" she whispered. "And yet—oh, how could I destroy his letter? And I thought you ought to see it—some day—not yet."
"Mother, I must see it now."
"You will never breathe it to a soul?"