I meant to tell you all the truth, as I know it.

I _can't_ tell it before strangers--in public! I _can't_ let them know--the shame--the shame!' Harvey's sympathy gave way to astonishment and strange surmise.
Hurriedly he besought her not to reveal anything in her present distress; to wait till she could reflect calmly, see things in truer proportion.

His embarrassment was heightened by an inability to identify this woman with the Mrs.Abbott he had known; the change in her self-presentment seemed as great and sudden as that in her circumstances.

Face and voice, though scarce recognisable, had changed less than the soul of her--as Harvey imaged it.

This entreaty she replied to with a steadiness, a resolve, which left him no choice but to listen.
'I cannot, dare not, think that he did this knowingly.