"Aunt Annie!" she whispered, in stupefaction.
And she turned and walked a few steps blindly, her eyes wide and vacant, and one hand pressed to her cheek. "My God!—my God!" he heard her say.
"Annie eloped when she was a girl," Chris began presently, when she was dazedly walking on again. "She was married, and the man deserted her. She was ill, in Germany——But shall I talk now? Would you rather not?"
"Oh, no—no! Go on," Norma said, briefly.
"Alice was the first to guess it," Christopher pursued. "Her sister doesn't know it, or dream it!"
"Aunt Annie doesn't! She does not know that I'm her own daughter!... But what does she think?"
"She supposes that her baby died, dear. I'm sorry to tell you, Norma, but I couldn't lie to you! You'll understand everything, now—why your grandmother wants to make it all up to you——"
"Does Leslie know?" Norma demanded, suddenly, from a dark moment of brooding.
"Nobody knows! Your Aunt Kate, your grandmother, Alice, and I, are absolutely the only people in the world! And Norma, nobody else must know. For the sake of the family, for everyone's sake——"
"Oh, I see that!" she answered, quickly and impatiently. And for awhile she walked on in silence, and apparently did not hear his one or two efforts to recommence the conversation. "Aunt Annie!" she said once, half aloud. And later she added, absently: "Yes, I should know!"