'Oh yes,' she said, falling back on her seat. 'I have palpitations still. I must not excite myself.'
'Just so; and to-morrow you will be calmer and more collected, and you will have made up your mind that the truth will be best because——' he paused, as though not certain how to proceed.
'Because of what?' she asked sharply; and he could detect strained anxiety in her tone.
'Because it will be better for you to tell your story in your own way, far better than for me to hear it from Mr. O'Brien.'
'You would go to him?' and there was unmistakable alarm in her voice.
'Most certainly I would go to him. This is a very important matter to others as well as yourself, Mrs. Blake.'
'I will kill myself,' she said wildly, 'before I tell any such story! You have no heart, Captain Burnett; you are treating me with refined cruelty; you want to bring me to shame because you hate me, and because——'
But again he checked her:
'Do not exhaust yourself with making all these speeches; you will need all your strength. I will come to you to-morrow evening, and if you will tell me the truth I will promise to help you as far as possible. Surely at such a crisis you will not refuse such help as I may be able to offer you, if only——' he paused, and there was deep feeling in his voice, 'for your children's sake.'
But though he could hear her sob as though in extremity of anguish, she made him no answer, nor could he induce her to speak again until they reached the Gray Cottage, where the fly stopped, and he got out and assisted her to alight. She kept her face averted from him.