She stood as one bent beneath a crushing burden, and he knew that her face was burning behind the sheltering hands.
He still held her with a certain stubbornness of possession, though she made no further attempt to cling to him.
"What do you mean by that ?" he said, bending to her.

"Tell me what you mean! Don't be afraid to tell me!" She shook her head again.

"I am bound," she said, dully, "bound hand and foot." "You mean that you really are--married to him ?" Merryon spoke the words as it were through closed lips.

He had a feeling as of being caught in some crushing machinery, of being slowly and inevitably ground to shapeless atoms.
Puck lifted her head at length and spoke, not looking at him.

"I went through a form of marriage with him," she said, "for the sake of--of--of--decency.