In what he now asked her he could not believe that he was treading upon prohibited ground, and in the face of their apparent innocence he was dismayed at the effect his words had upon her.

It seemed to him that her eyes flinched when he spoke, as if he had struck at her.

There passed over her face the look which he had come to dread: a swift, tense betrayal of the grief which he knew was eating at her soul, and which she was fighting so courageously to hide from him.

It had come and gone in a flash, but the pain of it was left with him.

She smiled at him a bit tremulously.
"I understand why you ask that," she said, "and it is no more than fair that I should tell you.