“I only ask him to wait----” “Yes,” Owen, broke in, “and you won’t say how long!” Both instinctively addressed themselves to Anna, who stood, nearly as shaken as themselves, between the double shock of their struggle. She looked again from Sophy’s inscrutable eyes to Owen’s stormy features; then she said: “What can I do, when there’s clearly something between you that I don’t know about?” “Oh, if it WERE between us! Can’t you see it’s outside of us--outside of her, dragging at her, dragging her away from me?” Owen wheeled round again upon his step-mother. Anna turned from him to the girl. “Is it true that you want to break your engagement? If you do, you ought to tell him now.” Owen burst into a laugh. “She doesn’t dare to--she’s afraid I’ll guess the reason!” A faint sound escaped from Sophy’s lips, but she kept them close on whatever answer she had ready. “If she doesn’t wish to marry you, why should she be afraid to have you know the reason?” “She’s afraid to have YOU know it--not me!” “To have ME know it?” He laughed again, and Anna, at his laugh, felt a sudden rush of indignation. “Owen, you must explain what you mean!” He looked at her hard before answering; then: “Ask Darrow!” he said. “Owen--Owen!” Sophy Viner murmured. XXIV Anna stood looking from one to the other. It had become apparent to her in a flash that Owen’s retort, though it startled Sophy, did not take her by surprise; and the discovery shot its light along dark distances of fear. The immediate inference was that Owen had guessed the reason of Darrow’s disapproval of his marriage, or that, at least, he suspected Sophy Viner of knowing and dreading it. This confirmation of her own obscure doubt sent a tremor of alarm through Anna. For a moment she felt like exclaiming: “All this is really no business of mine, and I refuse to have you mix me up in it--” but her secret fear held her fast. Sophy Viner was the first to speak. “I should like to go now,” she said in a low voice, taking a few steps toward the door. Her tone woke Anna to the sense of her own share in the situation. “I quite agree with you, my dear, that it’s useless to carry on this discussion. But since Mr. Darrow’s name has been brought into it, for reasons which I fail to guess, I want to tell you that you’re both mistaken if you think he’s not in sympathy with your marriage. If that’s what Owen means to imply, the idea’s a complete delusion.” She spoke the words deliberately and incisively, as if hoping that the sound of their utterance would stifle the whisper in her bosom. Sophy’s only answer was a vague murmur, and a movement that brought her nearer to the door; but before she could reach it Owen had placed himself in her way. “I don’t mean to imply what you think,” he said, addressing his step-mother but keeping his eyes on the girl. “I don’t say Darrow doesn’t like our marriage; I say it’s Sophy who’s hated it since Darrow’s been here!”