"I--I ought not to have said that," she exclaimed hurriedly.

"I was only a girl then, and I--well, I didn't know." "What you said has never passed my lips, dearest.

Only, I ask you again to-day to tell me honestly and frankly whether your opinion of him has in any way changed.

I mean whether you still believe what you then said." She was silent for a few moments.

Her lips twitched nervously, and her eyes stared blankly out of the window.