Gwenda was silent.
"Gwenda—I'm in the most awful trouble——" She looked around again.
Then she spoke rapidly and low with a fearful hoarse intensity.
"I won't tell them, but I'll tell you. They've been trying to get it out of me by bullying, but I wasn't going to let them. Gwenda—they wanted to make me tell straight out, there—before Steven. And I wouldn't—I wouldn't. They haven't got a word out of me. But it's true, what they say."
She paused.
"About me."
"My lamb, I don't know what they say about you."
"They say that I'm going to——"
Crouching where she sat, bent forward, staring with her stare, she whispered.
"Oh—Ally—darling——"
"I'm not ashamed, not the least little bit ashamed. And I don't care what they think of me. But I'm not going to tell them. I've told you because I know you won't hate me, you won't think me awful. But I won't tell Mary, and I won't tell Papa. Or Steven. If I do they'll make me marry him."