“You said you fancied I could forget what’s past,” he said at last. “Did you honestly believe that?”
“Yes, or ignore it.”
“Ignore it—or forget!” The fingers of the great hands twitched. “Some things one can’t ignore or forget, girl. To do so would be superhuman. You don’t understand.”
“No; you’ve never told me. You’ve suggested at times, merely suggested; nothing more.” 244
“You’d like to know why—the reason? It would help you to understand?”
“Yes; I think it would help.”
“It might even lead to making you—unafraid?”
A halt this time, then, “Yes, it might possibly do even that.”
Again the man looked at her for long in silence, and again very gravely.
“I’ll tell you, then,” he said. “It isn’t pleasant for me to tell nor for you to hear; but I’d like you to know why—if you can. They’re all back, back, the things I’d like to forget and can’t, a very long way. They date from the time I first knew anything.”