I said what I knew to be untrue." As none of her words seemed to her at all adequate to represent what she felt, she repeated them, and emphasized them without realizing the effect that they might have upon a man who cared for her.

She was completely taken aback by finding her arm suddenly dropped; then she saw his face most strangely contorted; was he laughing, it flashed across her?
In another moment she saw that he was in tears.

In her bewilderment at this apparition she stood aghast for a second.

With a desperate sense that this horror must, at all costs, be stopped, she then put her arms about him, drew his head for a moment upon her shoulder, and led him on, murmuring words of consolation, until he heaved a great sigh.

They held fast to each other; her tears, too, ran down her cheeks; and were both quite silent.