Only one long shudder showed the listener's agony. Tess, too, remained quiet, her veins bursting with pulsing blood. She could not tell him the rest, Frederick hadn't told, neither could she. Her promise on the rocks, so many years ago, still bound her.
The lawyer lowered his hands, and the whiteness of his face drew Tessibel to her knees beside him.
"I've always made you sad," she murmured. "I'm sorry, forgive me."
"Just tell me ... all," he insisted.
Then she began at the beginning and told him over again how Boy had gone to the rocks with Pete and she went after him. At the part where Frederick had taken her in his arms, she faltered. In the light of the wonderful, new love for Deforrest, she couldn't go on!
"Won't you let me ... keep the rest?" she implored.
"No, I will not!" groaned the man. "I will not!"
"Then, let me stand up."
She got up slowly and stood looking out of the window.
"He kissed and kissed me," she said, choking, "and just then Waldstricker came and ... saw."