“And you have turned a deaf ear to him as well?”
“Of course, sir,” she said coldly.
“And he, too, has given up, I suppose?”
“No, sir.”
“It is no more than I expected from such a woman as you, nurse,” said Elthorne, after another pause. “But there is a reason for all this. Forgive me: it is an old and broken man who speaks; there must be a reason.”
“Yes, Mr Elthorne,” she said, and her clear musical voice seemed to fill the room; “there is a reason—a good reason—for all this.”
“May I know it?”
“Yes; why not? Some women love but once.”
“Ah!” he said, and he took her hand. “Then you have loved—in the past?”
“Yes.”