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[Dellano <tw...@so...>]

Ved this imprisonment." There was another and a longer silence in which
Amabel seemed slowly to find meanings incredible to her before. And her
reception of them was expressed in the changed, the hardened voice with
which she said: "You know everything. I've always been sure you knew.
How can you say such things to me?" "Do not be angry with me, dear
Amabel. I do not mean to offend." "You spoke as though you were sorry
for me, as though I had been injured.--It touches him." "But," Lady
Elliston had flushed very slightly, "it does touch him. I blame Hugh for
this. He ought not to have allowed it. He ought not to have accepted
such misplaced penitence. You were a mere child, and Hugh neglected you
shamefully." "I was not a mere child," said Amabel. "I was a sinful
woman." Lady Elliston sat still, as if arrested and spell-bound by the
unexpected words. She seemed to find no answer. And as the silence grew
long, Amabel went on, slowly, with difficulty, yet determinedly opposing
and exposing the folly of the implied accusation. "You don't seem to
remember the facts. I betrayed my husband. He might have cast me off. He
might have disgraced me and my child. And he lifted me up; he sheltered
me; he gave his name to the child. He has given me everything I have.
You see--you must not speak of him like that to me." Lady Elliston had
gathered herself together though still, it