There was a suggestion of fierceness in the way he spoke, but nothing that approached the passion with which she flared up, “He never kissed me--never once!” she cried, her face flushing and her hands trembling visibly. Her collie, who had been running ahead, turned and came back to her. He looked up at her and then glanced, enquiringly, at the man. She laid one trembling hand on the dog’s head, and then seemed to calm herself. “Pardon me,” she said, “you really did not suggest--but you had every right to take it for granted that we had been lovers--that I had some regard for him. It is as great a crime for a woman to marry a man without caring for him in the least as it is for the man to marry her. I deserved all that I suffered; but I was spared, thank God, the memory of having had so much as one kiss from him. I never told him that I had any regard for him; but I did say that perhaps one day I might come to have some sort of feeling for him, but till then--I wonder if anything like this ever happened before. It’s funny, isn’t it?” “Funny? No. If any one else told me of it, I would think it funny; but when I look at you, I don’t think anything of the sort.” “It is funny, and what’s funnier still is that you are the first person whom I have told this to. Now, why should I tell it to you?” “I don’t know why, I’m sure, only I can tell you that you have told it to the right man. And now will you go a step further and confide in me how it was that you ever did marry the fellow? and we’ll drop the subject for ever and the day after. Don’t tell me if you don’t wish.” “I have gone so far that I may as well go further. I never knew until now how fascinating a thing is confession. I suppose that if it were not for women there would be no such thing as a confessional in any church.” “I should say not; but their secrets are sacred.” “I could never doubt you, and that is why I tell you now that I allowed myself to be persuaded by my poor mother into marrying that man. She believed that it would be for my own good.” “Of course. But why--why? Your father has heaps of money, I’m told, and the man’s position was a poor one.” “It was my position in this neighbourhood that was a poor one. You see, I’m only the daughter of a farmer.” “What better could you be? The Wadhursts have been at Athalsdean for hundreds of years, and in the neighbourhood for maybe a thousand. The name is Saxon. I looked up the whole dynasty in the county history.” “Then you know all about that; but is there any county history that will tell you who are the sort of people at Framsby that have it in their power to decree who are to be visited and who are not?”