"No, Paul, I do not know it—do you?"
"No! no! how should I? But Miriam, your head is still averted. Your very voice is changed. Miriam! what mean you? Tell me once for all. Do you suspect the handwriting?"
"How should I? Do you, Paul?"
"No! no! I don't suspect it."
They seemed afraid to look each other in the face; and well they might be, for the written agony on either brow; they seemed afraid to hear the sound of each other's words; and well they might be, for the hollow, unnatural sound of either voice.
"It cannot be! I am crazy, I believe. Let me clear my—oh, Heaven! Miriam! did—was—do you know whether there was any one in particular on familiar terms with Miss Mayfield?"
"No one out of the family, except Miss Thornton."
"'Out of the family'—out of what family?"
"Ours, at the cottage."
"Was—did—I wonder if my brother knew her intimately?"