“I have known for a long time,” she went on, “that it was all a dreadful mistake; that he—did not love me.”
“And you?” leaped from his guarded lips.
She looked away, a slow crimson staining her white cheeks.
“I could not bear it, if——” she murmured, and was silent.
“I hope you will believe me,” Jarvis said gravely, “when I tell you that what took place was not intentional on Whitcomb’s part. I know him, perhaps, better than you think.”
A shadowy smile touched Barbara’s tense mouth.
“Nothing—was ever—intentional with David,” she said.
After a long silence she looked up at him, her eyes dry and bright.
“Will you tell me,” she asked, “just what happened?”
He drew a hardly controlled breath.