"I have not." Hester Osborn dropped into a chair and leaned forward, covering her face with her hands.

She looked like a woman on the verge of an outbreak of hysteria, only to be held in check by a frenzied effort.
Lady Walderhurst, quite slowly, turned the colour of the milk itself.
But she did nothing but sit still and gaze at Hester.
"Wait a minute." The girl was trying to recover her breath.

"Wait till I can hold myself still.

I am going to tell you now.

I am going to tell you." "Yes," Emily answered faintly.
It seemed to her that she waited twenty minutes before another word was spoken, that she sat quite that long looking at the thin hands which seemed to clutch the hidden face.