“It was not my fault, Gerald; it was his. He compelled me to meet him.”
“For what reason?”
“He wished me to render him a service.”
“Of what character?”
“That I cannot explain.”
“You of course acquiesced?”
“No, I refused.”
“And yet the fact that you met him against your will shows in itself that you were in his power,” I remarked. “How was it that you could refuse?”
She was silent a moment, standing before me wan and pale in her black dress, her gloved hands clasped before her.
“I defied him,” she answered simply.