"No, dear, no, I daren't."
"But what is it?"
"No, dear, I daren't. Not yet, not yet, perhaps later.... Hark, there's the bell: that must be Mamma.... Yes, I hear Steyn's voice too.... I'd better go downstairs, dear...."
She left Elly, but was so much upset that downstairs she once more burst into tears....
"Elly is so tired," she said to Ottilie, "she's gone to bed: I should leave her alone to-day, if I were you...."
But she herself was quite unhinged. She felt that the terrible secret which she alone knew—so she thought—weighed too heavily on her simple soul, that she was being crushed by it, that she must tell it, that she must share it with another. And she said:
"Steyn, Steyn.... While Lot is talking to his mother, don't you know, I'd like to speak to you ... if I may...."
"Certainly," said Steyn.
They left the room.
"Upstairs?" asked Steyn.