“For God’s sake, what is it?”
“David—I—I—am to marry him!”
“Marry him!”
“It is for the honor of the family,” she said, as a tired child repeats a formula. “Maurice has said it must be so. I have no choice.”
“And afterward?”
She shivered and sagged against my shoulder. Again the world went black about me. To stand at her side and to witness that! Yet I knew I was powerless to oppose, and even in my misery I gave justice to his reason. The first part was clear, but—afterwards? The time seemed endless, as we waited there, clinging to each other, too numb with the sense of pain to utter word or protest.
“Lieutenant Littledale!”
I came sharply back to my senses.
“Follow us—take care of my sister—into the chapel—”