“I don’t see how I can, till you explain. If you thought the time had come to tell your grandmother, why not have asked me to do it? I had my reasons for waiting; but if you’d told me to speak I should have done so, naturally.”
He evaded her appeal by a sudden turn. “What were your reasons for waiting?”
Anna did not immediately answer. Her step-son’s eyes were on her face, and under his gaze she felt a faint disquietude.
“I was feeling my way.... I wanted to be absolutely sure...”
“Absolutely sure of what?”
She delayed again for a just perceptible instant. “Why, simply of our side of the case.”
“But you told me you were, the other day, when we talked it over before they came back from Ouchy.”
“Oh, my dear—if you think that, in such a complicated matter, every day, every hour, doesn’t more or less modify one’s surest sureness!”
“That’s just what I’m driving at. I want to know what has modified yours.”
She made a slight gesture of impatience. “What does it matter, now the thing’s done? I don’t know that I could give any clear reason...”