It was as if lightning had flashed across the old picture. He drew back from the fierce illumination.
'Was that why you——' he began, in a voice that was almost a whisper. 'Was that why?'
She nodded, speechless a moment for tears. 'Day and night there it was between my thought of you and me.'
He sat down, staring at her.
'When I was most unhappy,' she went on, in that low voice, 'I would wake thinking I heard it cry. It was my own crying I heard, but I seemed to have it in my arms. I suppose I was mad. I used to lie there in that lonely farmhouse pretending to hush it. It was so I hushed myself.'
'I never knew——'
'I didn't blame you. You couldn't risk being with me.'
'You agreed that, for both our sakes——'
'Yes, you had to be very circumspect. You were so well known. Your autocratic father, your brilliant political future——'
'Be fair. Our future—as I saw it then.'