"There, in the room? But how could that have been possible?"
She explained. He stared still more.
"Did he know?"
"I couldn't say; it was not easy to tell what he knew. I wondered then, and I've wondered since."
"Then you heard all that was said?"
"I heard, without understanding. You've no idea what a state of mind I was in; I was more than half out of my wits. I don't remember a single word either of you said; you might have been talking in a foreign tongue. I didn't seem to hear your words then. You see, I didn't know who you were; I didn't even know who he was, except that he said he was my guardian; that I seemed wholly at his mercy; and that I was in mortal terror of him. All that you have said about my father, and mother, and everything is strange to me. In that room at 'The Bolton Arms' I was the most ignorant, helpless, friendless, miserable creature in the world!"
"What had taken place between you?"
"He wanted me to marry him; he had wanted to before. He said I should have to marry him, and it seemed to me I should, and I would rather have died."
"You saw what took place, if you didn't hear?"
"Oh yes, I saw; and--and----"