The other girl made no reply; instead she got up and went to the window and opened the shutter. Across the distant city, above the house-tops and the spires, she saw the great dome of the Capitol, and from the lower terrace came the sweet perfume of heliotrope.
"I haven't slept," Eva went on; "it's killing me, I can't bear it. Rachel, Rachel," she fell on her knees again beside Rachel and hid her face on her dress, "I love him!"
"You mean Belhaven?"
There was a sound of strangled anguish from Eva and Rachel laid her hand on her shoulder. "Eva, have you told me the truth?"
There was a moment's silence.
"Yes."
"Then why in the world didn't you tell Astry the truth, too? Your one falsehood has cost us all this misery. Oh, I'm so ashamed, I feel as if I couldn't look Johnstone in the face again!" It was so incredible that even to save herself Eva should impugn her sister; Astry had dragged out that side of it, and Rachel was shuddering before it. "I don't see how you could do it!" she cried.
"He would have killed me!"
"If you haven't sinned, why are you so afraid of him? Eva, in your heart you're sinning against him now. You've got to give up Belhaven; if you can't you needn't ask me to do this awful thing. You'll have to give up Johnstone! I can't do it unless you're true; it's too much! Have you really chosen, Eva?"
Eva staggered to her feet and leaned against the wall, weeping. "I've chosen," she sobbed; "I've given him up. Oh, I've suffered enough. I wish I could be like you; you've no feeling!"