Else how could he have spoken so?
.

.

.

And the tempered restraint of her quivered at the thought--all the serenity, the confidence in life and in him began to waver.

And her first doubt crept in upon her.
She turned her expressionless face from him and, resting her cheek against the velvet back of the chair, looked out into the late afternoon sunshine.
All the long autumn without him, all her long, lonely, leisure hours in the golden weather, his silence, his withdrawal into himself, and his work, hitherto she had not misconstrued, though often she confused herself in explaining it.