She could bear her own, her private reference to the weight on her mind, but the touch of another hand made it too horribly press.

"Oh, I deny responsibility--to YOU.

So far as I ever had it I've done with it." He had been, all the while, beautifully smiling; but she made his look, now, penetrate her again more.

"As to whom then do you confess it ?" "Ah, mio caro, that's--if to anyone--my own business!" He continued to look at her hard.

"You give me up then ?" It was what Charlotte had asked her ten minutes before, and its coming from him so much in the same way shook her in her place.