“God knows it would have been better. Anything would be better than that you should speak to me as you do.”
There is an innocence that appeals, a sincerity that disarms, a candour that outfaces every proof, and Verplank, who had been bent on overwhelming this woman with a contempt which he felt wholly deserved, was impressed, in spite of himself, by the evident ingenuousness, by the evident wretchedness, too, of her words.
He moved back.
“You say I would have made you tell me?”
“Yes. Yes. You would have.”
“But made you tell me what?”
Leilah, still holding one hand to her head, raised the other from the chair, and with it made a gesture slight, yet desolate.
“What was it?” he asked.
Before replying, she looked away.