"And I have loved you so devotedly—so blindly," she said, in low tones of scorn. "You have been hating me all these months while I thought you were loving me. What a fool I have been! I might have known. You COULDN'T love me."
"When Leslie asks you to-night to marry him, you are to say that you will do so," said Sara, betraying no sign of having heard the bitter words.
"I shall refuse, Sara," said Hetty, every vestige of colour gone from her face.
"There is an alternative," announced the other deliberately.
"You will expose me to—him? To his family?"
"I shall turn you over to them, to let them do what they will with you. If you go as his wife, the secret is safe. If not, they may have you as you really are, to destroy, to annihilate. Take your choice, my dear."
"And you, Sara?" asked the girl quietly. "What explanation will you have to offer for all these months of protection?"
Her companion stared. "Has the prospect no terror for you?"
"Not now. Not since I have found you out. The thing I have feared all along has come to pass. I am relieved, now that you show me just where I truly stand. But, I asked: what of you?"
"The world is more likely to applaud than to curse me, Hetty. It likes a new sensation. My change of heart will appear quite natural."