"What is it?" Hector prompted. "Come, what is it, Moon?"
She seemed dumb for a moment. Her head was turned away and her face hidden.
"Is it about your father?"
"Yes," she answered swiftly, with a sudden straightening of her head. "It is about my father—my father—and—"
"Nothing has happened?"
"No. But this matter—I was saying—it is about my father—and—and you—and me!"
He waited. She made a strange, gasping sound in her throat. He began to see a light.
"Moon!" he exclaimed, alarmed.
Her voice came thickly to him.
"My father said he did it as an act of gratitude. You said—you said there was no love between us. He did not do it as an act of gratitude. He did it—" She dropped her bands suddenly and all her strength came to sustain her in that crisis. Her eyes were fearless. "He did it—because I wanted him to do it. You say there is no love between us." Her voice was half a laugh, half a moan. "No love with you, perhaps—but love—great love for you—there is with we!"