Another change of thought had come, and her features, as keenly alive now to every passing emotion as they had formerly been set in a dull placidity, mirrored doubts of her own, which had a deeper source than any which had disturbed the nurse, even in these moments of serious perplexity.
"How can I ?" fell in unconscious betrayal from her lips.

"How can I!" Then she stood silent, ghastly with lack of colour one minute, and rosy red with its excess the next, until it was hard to tell in which extreme her feeling spoke most truly.
What was the feeling?
Nurse Unwin felt it imperative to know.

Relying on the confidence shown her by this unfortunate girl, in her lonely position and unbearable distress, she approached Carmel, with renewed offers of help and such expressions of sympathy as she thought might lure her into open speech.
But discretion had come with fear, and Carmel, while not disdaining the other's kindness, instantly made it apparent that, whatever her burden, and however unsuited it was to her present weak condition, it was not one she felt willing to share.
"I must think," she murmured, as she finally followed the nurse's lead and seated herself on a lounge.

"Arthur on trial for his life! _Arthur on trial for his life!_ And Adelaide was not even murdered!" "No ?" gasped the nurse, intent on every word this long-silenced witness let fall.
"Had he no friend?
Was there not some one to understand?
Adelaide--" here her head fell till her face was lost to sight--"had--a--lover--" "Yes.

Mr.Elwood Ranelagh.