"But——"
"You'll never understand.... I hid it from you for three years."
"Hid what, Janey?"
"My—my love."
Nigel's arm dropped from her waist, but hers was round his neck, and she clung to him feverishly.
"Yes, I loved him. I loved him and I pitied him ... and I wanted, I tried, to help him—and—and I've been his ruin—and another woman has saved him."
Nigel was speechless. What astonished him, the man of secrets, most, was that Janey should have had a secret from him for three years.
"Don't tremble so, darling—but tell me about it. I won't be hard on you."
"You will—when you know all."
"Does Len know all?"