She only knew that her feeling kept her silent.
"I am here, Susannah"-- in his battle to speak Ephraim economised words--"to ask you to come back with me." Susannah considered.

It would be perhaps the best thing that she could do after she had spoken her mind to Angel.

He would not ask her to remain to join in a service she loathed.

But when she thought of her aunt, and of the voice of an outraged Puritan neighbourhood, her heart naturally failed her.
"I cannot." "Is this man more to you--I do not say than the ties of kindred, for that is natural--but more to you than the obligation to live a life of reason and duty ?" "No." Susannah spoke the answer aloud because it arose so simply and strongly within her.

Had she not just come to a crisis in which her desire to abide by reason proved far stronger than the feeling which bound her to Halsey?
And yet, as she thought of his love and his tenderness for her, she felt only pity for him, even if he had told a lie.
Ephraim had grown calmer, but at the clear denial his heart again beat against the breath he was trying to draw.