followed his ocular incitements too fatally far? By what religious
prestidigitation he had trapped her secret from her must remain a thick
mystery now. Nothing mattered but that he, having deceitfully seemed to
agree that it was all a matter between herself and him, should not now
turn and betray her.... _Tell now?_ The sudden vista of scandal
horrified her. How would she ever face mamma again? How would Hugo,
whose bride and pride she was, regard her then?...

"Don't you see?" she said, with gathering tensity--"I--I meant it as _a
confidence to you_. You mustn't dream of telling anybody else...."

"But neither you nor I own the truth. This belongs to Dalhousie...."

"Oh, it doesn't!--it doesn't! How can you! You misunderstand!--What I
said to you gave you a totally wrong impression. He was entirely to
blame for my upsetting. _Entirely!_ He behaved abominably--and I--"

"_Tell now!" _cried the man, with his strange stern passion. "Once it's
done, you'll always be glad. Don't you know you _must_, now! Don't you
see you can't be happy, till you let the truth be known?..."

There came from above the unmistakable movement of chairs, the sound of
many feet. It appeared that the Settlement meeting was breaking up. The
man's entreaties bounded back dead.

"I couldn't!--Don't you understand? There's nothing to tell. It was not
my fault. The story was distorted, distorted, and distorted! I regretted
that as much as any one. But I could do nothing, nothing to stop it. And
don't you understand I couldn't possibly tell this broadcast _now_, when
it's been done with for _months!_ What would people think of me?