She answered him because she had no choice. "Yes, Nick. But I always
hated him."

"And you didn't tell me," he said.

There was no note of reproach in his tone, yet in some fashion it hurt
her.

"Nick--darling, you--you've only got one arm," she said. "And he's such
a great, strong bully."

Nick uttered a sudden fierce laugh. His hand was clenched. "You women!"
he said, and for some reason Olga felt overwhelmingly foolish.

"Well, finish!" he commanded. "No half-measures, mind! Just the whole
truth!"

And Olga stumbled on. She repeated with quivering lips Hunt-Goring's
story of the taint in Violet's blood, of the tragedy that had preceded
her birth.

"Nick," she said, turning piteous eyes upon his face, "I know it must be
partly true, but do you think it is really quite as bad as that? I
believed it at the time. But--but--perhaps--"

He shook his head. "It's true," he said briefly.

"True that she is going--mad? Oh, Nick--Nick!"

He slipped his arm around her. "And the devil told her, did he?"