"Still," said I, "communication was possible when I got my hurt last June."
"Sir?"
"Is that not true?"
She looked at me in troubled silence.
"Did not Lady Johnson's brother come here in secret to give her news, and take as much away?"
She did not answer.
"Once," said I, "although I had not asked, you told me that you were a friend to liberty."
"And am so," said she.
"And have a Tory lover."
At that her face flamed and her wool dropped into her lap. She did not look at me but sat with gaze ahead of her as though considering.