“But I will if you wish,” she said, her eyes growing rounder and larger in the intensity of her gaze, while her lips trembled a little.
“No, no; I don’t want you to!”
He drew a great sigh, rose, and stretched out his arms. But immediately he had refused to hear her explanation, a revulsion came to him. It seemed to him that anything were better than not to know. The mystery that enveloped them had a hundred monstrous figures of doubt and jealousy in it. The one thing he could not combat was the unknown.
“It was a man—a man who loved you?” he cried, before he had realized it.
She caught her breath, startled, collected herself angrily, and at last, looking him directly in the eyes, nodded slowly.
He came closer and stood staring in her averted face.
“And whom you once loved?”
She drew back, turned, looked into his eyes, and turned away again.
“Yes; since you would know.”