"I am going to my room to take off my hat," Betty said. "Will you come
with me?"
She went into the house, talking quietly of ordinary things, and in
this way they mounted the stairway together and passed along the gallery
which led to her room. When they entered it she closed the door, locked
it, and, taking off her hat, laid it aside. After doing which she sat.
"No one can hear and no one can come in," she said. "And if they could,
you are afraid of things you need not be afraid of now. Tell me what
happened when you were so ill after Ughtred was born."
"You guessed that it happened then," gasped Lady Anstruthers.
"It was a good time to make anything happen," replied Bettina. "You were
prostrated, you were a child, and felt yourself cast off hopelessly from
the people who loved you."
"Forever! Forever!" Lady Anstruthers' voice was a sharp little moan.
"That was what I felt--that nothing could ever help me. I dared not
write things. He told me he would not have it--that he would stop any
hysterical complaints--that his mother could testify that he
behaved perfectly to me. She was the only person in the room with us
when--when----"
"When?" said Betty.
Lady Anstruthers shuddered.
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