Page:The Yellow Book - 04.djvu/78

68 some one I had never seen since Oh, long before I loved you. I could not pass her. I—O God! can't you understand? Don't make me explain so horribly." The tale ran from him in short and broken sentences. His fingers twisted nervously about a wisp of her hair; his gaze had nowhere rest. She looked full into his face with frightened eyes.

"Do you mean—those women—we saw?" she asked at last, in a voice pitched so low that he hardly heard.

"Yes," he whispered; and then again there was silence. The agony of the suspense was intolerable. "You will never forgive me," he muttered.

He felt her trembling hands grow cold under his touch; and as she still kept silence, he dropped his slow, reluctant glance to meet hers. At the sight of the terrified eyes he put his hands towards her quickly.

"Letty, Letty," he cried, "for God's sake, don't look like that. Speak to me; say you forgive me. Dearest, darling, forgive me."

She rose as if unconscious of her action, and, walking slowly to the fireplace, stood looking at the red flames.

"Letty," he called, "don't spurn me like this. Darling, darling!"

His attitude, as he waited for her response, there in the centre of the room, was one of singular despair. His mouth was wried with an expression of suffering; he endured all the pangs of a sensitive nature which has been always wont to shelter itself from pain. But still she made no answer. And then she seemed suddenly taken with a great convulsion; her body trembled and shivered; she wheeled half-way round with a cry; her eyes shone with pain.

"George, George!" she screamed on a horrid note of agony, and