She laid down the little frock she was embroidering on the instant, and went to kneel beside him; for her insight into this man's moods was complete, and she felt what was coming.
"And it reminds me too, Duke. That is why I love it. I have told you so often it was nobody's fault; if anybody's, mine."
He shook his head.
"You can't make me believe that."
"But it is true. See here, Duke, I ought never to have allowed you to bind yourself. It put me in a false position. I was too anxious to please, too anxious to pay you back the gift, as it were, so I did what I ought not to have done. I thought of you, not of the child. But what is the use of going over it all again? It is past and done with."
He sat with his hands between his knees for a minute, looking at the fire.
"Well, I am sorry the poor little chap died."
It gave her the opening she needed.
"That is what your father said when I told him," she said quietly.
He stared at her.