"Don't let us talk too much about it, Eva."
But Eva came over and sank into the chair, hiding her face in her hands. "Rachel, I—I asked Belhaven to let you go."
"You asked him—to let me go?" Rachel's heart seemed to stop beating. "Eva, you don't mean that you still care so much for him?"
"No—no, not that!"
Rachel stood thinking; a sudden horror had filled her soul with agony. "Eva, I meant to have told you before—I saw you and Belhaven that day in the wood."
Eva's hands fell in her lap; a deep blush dyed her worn face as she looked up. "And you thought?"
Rachel nodded, tears in her eyes. "Forgive me!"
Eva shook her head slowly. "It's natural—I—I—oh, Rachel, I was begging him to let you go; I can't bear it, I've ruined your life and his and Johnstone's—I can never be anything to him either!"
Rachel caught her hands in hers. "Eva, you're beginning to care what Johnstone thinks?"
Eva slipped from the chair to the floor at her sister's feet. "Rachel, I can't bear it any longer; I was false and cruel, I know it now! I've never done a noble thing in my life and you've always been an angel to me, Rachel," her head sank lower. "I was going away that night with Belhaven and—at the last—I was afraid; I made you save me from Astry's anger."