"What is all this mystery? Why can't she be my wife? What is there to prevent?"
She regarded him with dark, inscrutable eyes. Many seconds passed before she spoke.
"Would you want her for your wife if you knew she had belonged to another man?"
He turned very cold. The palms of his hands were wet, as with ice-water. Something dark seemed to flit before his eyes.
"I will not believe that of her," he said, shaking his head with an air of finality.
"That is not an answer to my question."
"Yes, I would still want her," he declared steadily.
"I merely meant to put you to the harshest test," she said, and there was relief in her voice. "She is a good girl, she is pure. I asked my question because until yesterday I had reason to doubt her."
"Good heavens, how could you doubt those honest, guiltless eyes of—"
She shook her head sadly. "To answer you I would have to reveal the secret that makes it impossible for her to become your wife, and that I cannot, will not do."