Page:The Other House (London, William Heinemann, 1896), Volume 2.djvu/151

Rh "shall I be to myself?" But he continued before she could meet the question: "I went back to the bridge, and as I approached it Miss Martle came down to it from your garden."

Mrs. Beever grabbed his arm. "Without the child?" He was silent so long that she repeated it: "Without the child?"

He finally spoke. "Without the child."

She looked at him as she showed that she felt she had never looked at any man. "On your sacred honour?"

"On my sacred honour."

She closed her eyes as she had closed them at the beginning of their talk, and the same defeated spasm passed over her face. "You are a help," she said.

"Well," Dennis replied straightforwardly, "if it's being one to let you know that she was with me from that moment"

Breathless she caught him up. " With you?—till when?"

"Till just now, when we again separated at the gate-house: I to go over to Bounds, as I had promised Mr. Bream, and Miss Martle"