He leaned down towards her, and spoke quickly, urgently.
"Olga dear, forgive me for asking, but I must know. Don't you really love him?"
She made a little unconscious gesture of the hands as of pushing something from her. "No," she said.
"But you did?" he insisted.
She leaned her elbow on her knee, lodging her chin upon her hand. "I thought I did—once," she said slowly. "But—it was a mistake."
"It couldn't have been," he said.
She nodded slowly two or three times, not turning her head. "Yes," she said, with the air of one clinching an argument. "It was a mistake."
Noel was silent for a few moments. There was something in her set profile that hurt him. He longed to see her full face. But she did not move. She seemed almost to have forgotten that he was there.
He moved at last, bending nearer. "Olga!" he whispered.
"Yes?" Still she did not turn.