"Something to do with it?" she echoed dully, mechanically.
"I wasn't speaking literally, of course." Vera went on. "But your curious expression——"
"What is curious about my expression?"
"It is so strange. It is not like grief, so much as remorse."
Marion broke into a queer laugh, a laugh she strangled. As she passed her handkerchief across her face she seemed to wipe out that strange expression.
"I hope remorse and I will remain strangers for many a long day," she said more composedly. "It is so difficult to judge from faces. And I must try to be brave like yourself. I have never given way before."
"I believe you are the bravest of us all, Marion."
"And I that I am the greatest coward. I have even been so weak as to allow the secret of my life to escape me. Vera, I want you to make me a most sacred promise."
"A dozen if you like, dear."
"Then I want you to promise that Geoffrey shall never know of your discovery. At no time are you to tell him. Promise."