'And you found out you'd been mistaken?'
She nodded again.
'You see—she talked about her to me a great deal. Of course I—I never said anything. She'd been with her fifteen years—and she just worshipped her. And she told me about her bad husband—how she'd nursed him, and that—and how he died last year!'
A wild colour leapt into Fenwick's cheeks.
'And you began to think—there might be a false position—there too—between her and me?'
His cruel, broken words stung her intolerably. She sprang up, looking at him fiercely.
'And if I did, it wasn't all selfishness. Can't you understand, I might have been afraid for her—and you—as well as for myself?'
He moved again to the window, and stood with head bent, twisting his lip painfully.
'And to-day you've seen her?' he said, still looking out.
'Yes—she was very, very kind,' said Phoebe, humbly.