She did not start, she lifted her head slowly, her hands dropped, he could see her face dimly, white in the starlight.
"Why do I find you here alone, Betty, and weeping?" he asked gently. "Are you in some trouble or suffering?"
She shook her head in silence.
"Then why?"
"Oh, I doan't know, I doan't know," she cried suddenly, she flung out her arms with a gesture of despair. "I doan't understand it all, and it du frighten me, it du. Oh, I be terribul frightened of it all, I be, frightened and yet—glad." She looked up at him. He could see the oval face more clearly now, the shining eyes and the trembling red lips.
He took both her hands suddenly and held them tightly.
"Betty, what does it all mean? Can you tell me, for I do not understand?"
"Nor du I understand," she said. "Oh, tell me, Allan, tell me, did 'ee know me when—Oh, sir—forgive." She broke off suddenly and her head dropped.
"Tell me, what were you going to ask?"
She lifted her head again.