She leaned forward and caught Betty's hand
between her own shaking ones.
"He struck me! He struck me! He said it never happened--but it did--it
did! Betty, it did! That was the one thing that came back to me
clearest. He said that I was in delirious hysterics, and that I had
struggled with his mother and himself, because they tried to keep me
quiet, and prevent the servants hearing. One awful day he brought Lady
Anstruthers into the room, and they stood over me, as I lay in bed, and
she fixed her eyes on me and said that she--being an Englishwoman, and
a person whose word would be believed, could tell people the truth--my
father and mother, if necessary, that my spoiled, hysterical American
tempers had created unhappiness for me--merely because I was bored by
life in the country and wanted excitement. I tried to answer, but they
would not let me, and when I began to shake all over, they said that I
was throwing myself into hysterics again. And they told the doctor so,
and he believed it."
The possibilities of the situation were plainly to be seen. Fate, in the
form of temperament itself, had been against her. It was clear enough to
Betty as she patted and stroked the thin hands.
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