But Ethne reached out her hand and took the box from him.

There were three visiting cards lying at the bottom, and she took them out and read them aloud.
"Captain Trench, Mr.Castleton, Mr.Willoughby.Do you know these men ?" "All three are officers of my old regiment." The girl was dazed.

She knelt down upon the floor and gathered the feathers into her hand with a vague thought that merely to touch them would help her to comprehension.

They lay upon the palm of her white glove, and she blew gently upon them, and they swam up into the air and hung fluttering and rocking.

As they floated downward she caught them again, and so she slowly felt her way to another question.
"Were they justly sent ?" she asked.
"Yes," said Harry Feversham.
He had no thought of denial or evasion.