'But only for a short while,' he continued. 'After that meeting with you I was convinced that neither she nor you had injured me in that way. Your looks, your words, assured me of your entire innocence. Some folk have gone so far as to assert that your mother has employed my father's savings to send you to Bath, but I have spoken strongly against that.'
He was startled by the expression of her face, by the mute agony and despair that were in it.
She looked at him with blank eyes, and every particle of colour had deserted her face, even her lips. As he put out his hand to take hers, she drew back with a shiver.
'Winefred! what is the matter? I tell you that I believe that no more. Why are you frightened? Why do you look at me thus?'
'Do not ask me,' she answered. 'I cannot explain.' She laid her face in her hands.
'I will ask no questions at all,' he said. 'I am content now that I have your love. I forget all the past, with its misunderstandings. Be but yourself again. I love you with all my heart—let that be our one thought now.'
She wrung her hands despairingly, looking at him with a death-like face. Her lips moved, but no words came over them.
'I love you—I love you,' she said, after a long and painful pause. 'But that is all. In the bright day comes darkness. We are two wretched creatures. We must not love each other, for we can never, never belong to each other.'
'But why not?' he asked.
'You have promised me not to inquire.'