The fellow's words had stabbed her consciousness, and done something for her that gentler means would not have accomplished; they had opened her eyes to a thing that she had forgotten--a hideous thing that had reared its fangs once before to strike, but which her dreams of happiness had driven out of her Eden.
All at once she saw the wrong that had been done her, and realized from this brute's insult that those early fears had been well grounded.

It suddenly occurred to her that in all the hours she had spent with her lover, in all those unspeakably sweet and intimate hours, there had never been one word of marriage.

He had looked into her eyes and vowed he could not live without her, and yet he had never said the words he should have said, the words that would bind her to him.

His arms and his lips had comforted her and stilled her fears, but after all he had merely made love.

A cold fear crept over the girl.