"Why, surely you've heard from him frequently during this trouble—and you've written to him?"
"I've written to him, yes."
"And he has written to you, of course?"
The girl stood silent, while she plucked honeysuckles from the vines that shrouded the porch in which they stood, and nervously pulled them to pieces.
"Answer me, child," the Colonel said in a tone of command. "Hasn't Boyd Westover written to you during all this trouble?"
"I have received no letter from him," she answered hesitatingly.
"Do you mean that he hasn't written to you of his arrest, trial and all the rest of it, of his vindication and—"
"I have had no letter from him," she repeated.
"Hasn't he even offered you a release from your engagement?"
"I have had no letter from him," she said again, but this time she lost her self control and blurted out the thought that had troubled her for many days.