“Can you tell me what was said between you?”
There was another pause, and still Patty made no answer. Suddenly she burst forth: “Oh, I can’t!—I can’t!—I can’t!” She covered her face with her hands as she spoke, rocking her body back and forth, while convulsive sobs shook her through and through.
I think that few eyes were dry in the magistrate’s office. Tom stood looking at his darling with trembling lips, the tears trickling unnoticed down his cheeks. Old Elihu Penrose sat gazing stonily ahead of him, his hands clasped tightly together upon his lap.
Nothing was said for some time, and Mr. Morrow sat wiping his spectacles. After a while he spoke in a gentle and soothing manner: “You must answer me—you must, indeed. It is sad, very sad. I wouldn’t ask you these things if I didn’t have to. But you must answer me. Can’t you tell me what was said between you when you saw him last?”
“I—I—I told-him—that I was to—to be married—to-day.”
There was a moment of hesitation before the magistrate asked the next question. Then it came;
“Was there a promise of marriage between you and the prisoner before he left Eastcaster a year and a half ago?”
Again there was no answer given to Mr. Morrow’s question, and, after a little pause, the magistrate repeated it.
Still Patty said nothing; her face sank lower, lower, lower upon her breast and her hands slid helplessly to her lap; then she swayed slowly from one side to the other. Tom was looking intently at her, and suddenly he gave a sharp and bitter cry:—
“Catch her; she’s falling! My God, you’ve killed her!”