"Whom have you ill-used?" She did not look at him.
"Many—you chiefly."
"How have you—most-ill-used me?"
"By letting you think well of me—you have done so, have you not?"
She did not speak, but lowered her head, and caught her breath slightly.
There was a silence. Then she said: "There was no reason why I should—
But you must not say these things to me. My husband—"
"Your husband knows all."
"But that does not alter it," she urged firmly. "Though he may be willing you should speak of these things, I am not."
"Your husband is a good fellow," he rejoined. "I am not."
"You are not?" she asked wearily.
"No. What do you think was the reason that, years ago, I said we could never be married, and that we must forget each other?"