"If this is so, we must. A secret between husband and wife is fatal."
"It would be, but I admit nothing, we cannot be husband and wife."
"Never, Charlotte?"
"Never!" she said.
Hinton thought for a moment, and then he came up and again took her hand. "Lottie, tell me that secret; trust me; I know there is a secret, tell it to me, all of it, let me decide whether it must part us."
"I cannot, my darling—my darling—I can say nothing, explain nothing, except that you and I must part."
"If that is so, we must," he said.
He was pained, shocked, and angry, beyond words. He left the room and the house without even another look.