"You cannot know that, at least," she said. "There is no need for what you call future punishment, I have had mine here; and I have hated you for fear you would find me out. How long have you known it?"
"For a long time, many months. Irene, I cannot let you talk or think about it now. Won't you try to put it all away for to-night? There is nothing, you see, that you need to tell me."
The great solemn eyes that Maybelle's were like when she was troubled were fixed upon Ruth.
"Could you put it away?" she asked. "It has never been away from me for a moment, the fear that Erskine would—would—"
A convulsive shiver ran through her frame, as of one in physical pain.
"Oh!" said Ruth, in terror, "this is all wrong! If you are worse, Erskine will never forgive me."
Irene made a visible effort to control herself, and lay with closed eyes, and motionless, allowing Ruth to bathe her face and make hot applications to her hands and feet. After a little, she spoke, quietly enough.
"I will talk quietly, but you must let me talk, now. I have kept it to myself just as long as I can. Since Baby came, my life has been a daily terror. Will you tell me how you came to know about me, and why you have not told Erskine? I am sure you have not, but I do not understand why."
"Because," said Ruth, solemnly, "Jesus Christ, to whom I belong, told me not to do so. It is your secret, Irene, yours and His. You must let Him tell you what to do with it."
Irene gazed at her. "You are a strange woman," she said at last, "a very strange woman; but you are good, and I have not understood you. I am sorry that I hated you. If I had understood, it might have been—different. I thought you would find it out, sometime, women always do, and I hated you for that; I dreaded you, you know. Every letter that came from you while you were away made me faint and sick because of what might be in it. I was afraid to have Erskine come home at night because of what he might have heard; and I was afraid to have him go away again in the morning for fear it would be the last time he would kiss me."