"Your Aunt Marianna," he amended, flushing. But their eyes did not move as they stared at each other.
A thousand remembered trifles flashed through Norma's whirling brain; a thousand little half-stilled suspicions leaped to new life. She had accepted the suggested kinship in childish acquiescence, but doubt was aflame now, once and for all. The man knew that there was no further evading her.
"Chris, do you know anything about me?" she asked, directly.
"Yes, I think—I know everything," he answered, after a second's hesitation.
Norma looked at him steadily. "Did you know my father and mother?" she demanded, presently, in an odd, tense voice.
There was another pause before Chris said, slowly:
"I have met your father. But I knew—I know—your mother."
"You know her?" The world was whirling about Norma. "Is Aunt Kate my mother?" she asked, breathing hard.
"No. I don't know why you should not know. You call her Aunt Annie," Chris said.
Norma's hands dropped to her sides. She breathed as if she were suffocating.