I understood the main fact, but that is about all.

You didn't tell me what happened after." The professor's chair, which had been tilted negligently back, came down with a thud.
"After ?" he murmured meekly.

"After-- ?" "I mean," prompted Desire gently, "did she marry the other man ?" "The other man?
I--I don't know." The professor was willing to be truthful while he could.

But instantly he saw that it wouldn't do.
"You--don't--know ?" If ever incredulity breathed in any voice it breathed in hers.

It gave our weak-kneed liar the brace that he needed.
"No," he said sadly, "they were to have been married--I have never heard." "Oh! Then, of course, she did not live in your home town." "Didn't she ?" asked Spence, momentarily off guard.