She stopped and reflected. There was something wanting in the story, which she could not supply. It was a motive. A half-confession is almost an impossibility. When we speak of ourselves it must be all or nothing—preferably, nothing.
“I do not know why I did it,” she said. “It was a sort of period I went through. I cannot explain.”
He did not ask her to do so. They were singularly like brother and sister in their mental attitude. They had driven through twenty miles of forest which belonged to one or other of them. Each was touched by the intangible, inexplicable dignity that belongs to the possession of great lands—to the inheritance of a great name.
“That is the confession,” she said.
He gave a little laugh.
“If none of us had worse than that upon our consciences,” he answered, “there would be little harm in the world, De Chauxville’s schemes have only hurried on a crisis which was foreordained. The progress of humanity cannot be stayed. They have tried to stay it in this country. They will go on trying until the crash comes. What is the favor you have to ask?”
“You must leave Osterno,” she urged earnestly; “it is unsafe to delay even a few hours. M. de Chauxville said there would be no danger. I believed him then, but I do not now. Besides, I know the peasants. They are hard to rouse, but once excited they are uncontrollable. They are afraid of nothing. You must get away to-night.”
Paul made no answer.
She turned slowly in her seat and looked into his face by the light of the waning moon.
“Do you mean that you will not go?”