The bare facts stand naked.

No sophistry can dull their outlines nor soften the insistence of their high lights; nor can any reasoning explain away the results that will follow.

Both women, without the exchange of a word, knew instantly that the consummation of this marriage meant the loss of Lucy forever.

Now she would never come back, and Archie would be motherless for life.
They foresaw, too, that all their yearning to clasp Lucy once more in their arms would go unsatisfied.

In this marriage she had found a way to slip as easily from out the ties that bound her to Yardley as she would from an old dress.
Martha rose from her chair, read the letter again to the end, and without opening her lips left the room.