She seemed startled by his vehemence, for she looked up at him timidly.
"Can't you trust me?" he continued. "Won't you tell me what has come between us?"
Two big tears gathered in her eyes.
The sight was too much for Cyril. Right and wrong ceased to exist for him. He forgot everything; stooping forward he gathered her into his arms and crushed her small body against his heart.
She thrust him from her with unexpected force and stood before him with blazing eyes.
"You cannot treat me like a child, who can be neglected one day and fondled the next! I won't have it! At the nursing home I was too weak and confused to realise how strangely you were behaving, but now I know. You dare to complain of my coldness—my coldness indeed! Is my coldness a match to yours? Why do you suddenly pretend to love me?"
He interrupted her with a vigorous protest.
"If you do, then your conduct is all the more inexplicable. If you do, then I ask you, what is it, who is it, that stands between us?"
"If I could tell you, don't you suppose I would?" declared Cyril.
"Then there is some one, some person who is keeping us apart!"