I must and I can't." Magdalen remained standing in the middle of the room.

She knew that the breaking moment had come and she waited.
She waited a long time.
The storm without spent itself before the storm within had spent itself.
At last Fay sat up.
Then Magdalen moved quietly to the dying fire.

She put on some coal, she blew the dim embers to a glow.
Fay watched her.
Magdalen did not look at her.

She sat down by the fire, keeping her eyes fixed upon it.
"I have done something very wicked," said Fay in a hollow voice from the bed.

"If I tell you all about it will you promise, will you swear to me that you will never tell anybody ?" "I promise," said Magdalen after a moment.
"Swear it." "I swear." Fay made several false starts and then said: "I was very unhappy with Andrea." Magdalen became perceptibly paler and then very red.
"He never cared for me," continued Fay, slipping off the bed, and kneeling down before the fire.