It seemed as if I _couldn't_ bear it alone any longer." After which she told him her story.
* * * * * The unadorned straightforwardness of the relation made it an amazing thing to hear, even more amazing than it would have been made by a more imaginative handling.

Her obvious inability to cope with the unusual and villainous, combined with her entire willingness to obliterate herself in any manner in her whole-souled tenderness for the one present object of her existence, were things a man could not be unmoved by, even though experience led him to smile at the lack of knowledge of the world which had left her without practical defence.

Her very humbleness and candour made her a drama in herself.
"Perhaps I was wrong to run away.

Perhaps only a silly woman would have done such a queer, unconventional thing.

But I could think of nothing else so likely to be quite safe, until Lord Walderhurst could advise me.
And when his letter came yesterday, and he did not speak of what I had said--" Her voice quite failed her.
"Captain Osborn has detained your letter.