I had seen her at dinner, and this was not the gown she had worn then--the gown in which she had confronted me during those few intolerable minutes when I could not meet her eyes.

Fatal cowardice! A moment of realisation then and we might all have been saved this horror of sin and death and shameful retribution.
And yet who knows?
Not understanding what I saw, how could I measure the might-have-beens! I would proceed with my task--note if she wore the diamond brooch I had given her.

No, she was without ornament; I had never seen her so plainly clad.

Might I draw a hope from this?
Even the pins which had fallen from her hair were such as she wore when least adorned.
Nothing spoke of the dinner party or of her having been dragged here unaware; but all of previous intent and premeditation.

Surely hope was getting uppermost.