Page:The Fruit of the Tree (Wharton 1907).djvu/535

Rh A sob formed in her throat, and she had to wait to steady her voice.

“No—that was my wrong—my weakness. When I did it I never thought of being afraid to tell you—I had talked it over with you in my own mind … so often … before.…”

“Well?”

“Then—when you came back it was harder … though I was still sure you would approve me.”

“Why harder?”

“Because at ﬁrst—at Lynbrook—I could not tell it all over, in detail, as I have now … it was beyond human power … and without doing so, I couldn’t make it all clear to you … and so should only have added to your pain. If you had been there you would have done as I did.… I felt sure of that from the ﬁrst. But coming afterward, you couldn’t judge … no one who was not there could judge … and I wanted to spare you.…”

“And afterward?”

She had shrunk in advance from this question, and she could not answer it at once. To gain time she echoed it. “Afterward?”

“Did it never occur to you, when we met later—when you ﬁrst went to Mr. Langhope”?

“To tell you then? No—because by that time I had come to see that I could never be quite sure of making [ 519 ]