Listen to me, Elfride.' Knight's voice was low and unequal.
'I have been honest with you: will you be so with me? If any--
strange--connection has existed between yourself and a predecessor
of mine, tell it now. It is better that I know it now, even
though the knowledge should part us, than that I should discover
it in time to come. And suspicions have been awakened in me. I
think I will not say how, because I despise the means. A
discovery of any mystery of your past would embitter our lives.'
Knight waited with a slow manner of calmness. His eyes were sad
and imperative. They went farther along the path.
'Will you forgive me if I tell you all?' she exclaimed
entreatingly.
'I can't promise; so much depends upon what you have to tell.'
Elfride could not endure the silence which followed.
'Are you not going to love me?' she burst out. 'Harry, Harry,
love me, and speak as usual! Do; I beseech you, Harry!'
'Are you going to act fairly by me?' said Knight, with rising
anger; 'or are you not? What have I done to you that I should be
put off like this? Be caught like a bird in a springe; everything
intended to be hidden from me! Why is it, Elfride? That's what I
ask you.'
In their agitation they had left the path, and were wandering
among the wet and obstructive stubble, without knowing or heeding
it.
'What have I done?' she faltered.
'What? How can you ask what, when you know so well? You KNOW that
I have designedly been kept in ignorance of something attaching to
you, which, had I known of it, might have altered all my conduct;
and yet you say, what?'
She drooped visibly, and made no answer.
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