A long pause followed her last words. She shed no tears, but another sob
was struggling for utterance. She put her hand to her throat to strangle
it there.
And then at last Mordaunt spoke. "Chris, have you been doing something
that you are afraid to tell me of?"
She was silent. Silence was her only refuge now.
He put his arm round her. "Because," he said very tenderly, "you needn't
be afraid, dear, Heaven knows."
That pierced her unbearably. Woman though she was, she almost cried out
under the pain of it.
She drew herself away from him. "Don't! please don't!" she said rather
breathlessly. "You--you must take things for granted sometimes. I can't
always be explaining my feelings. They won't stand it."
She tried to laugh, but could not. Again desperately she pressed her hand
to her throat. How would he take it? She wondered. Would he regard it as
a mere childish whim? Or would he see that he was dealing with a woman,
and a desperate woman at that?
She scarcely knew what she expected of him, but most assuredly she did
not anticipate his next move.
Quite quietly he picked up the jewel-case, and re-entered her room.
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