"Are the statements in your mother's letter true?"
"My mother's letter!" said she.
"Have I reason for this jealousy?" he breathed.
Her reply was also but a breathing:
"I will not tell you anything," said she.
Once again the silence drowsed and droned between the two people, and again they repaired to the secret places of their souls where energy was sucked from them until they existed only in a torpor. The woman rose languidly from her chair, and, after an instant, the man stood also.
Said he:
"I will leave here in the morning."
"You will let me see the boy," she murmured.
"If," said he, "I ever learn that you have spoken to the boy I will kill you, and I will kill the boy."