"I know! I'm not asking forgiveness!" And, with a decision that astonished Dodo, she entered, saying, "No one will come--for half an hour at least? I've got something I must talk out, you're the only human being, Dodo--I must talk to some one, or I shall go mad!" The obstinate reckless force in her words and gestures completed Dodo's astonishment. Instead of a suppliant, Winona had assumed control of the situation. She hesitated, on the point of an angry refusal. But Winona had not come to ask for forgiveness--for what then? She turned on her heel, sat down and folded her arms aggressively, looking her sternest. Winona immediately placed herself before her, never avoiding her gaze, speaking abruptly, as if in a hurry, with hard cruel notes in her voice: "Dodo, you were the only true friend I had in the world; you did everything for me; and I tried to take from you a man who means nothing to you. You have a dozen,--twenty, if you wish,--and I had none! I was desperate! I'm saying no more--what's the use? You wouldn't forgive me--I wouldn't if I were you; and, if you did, would that change matters? No! Some day--you will see matters differently." She stopped at an angry gesture of negation from the seated girl, and repeated, with a smile full of bitterness: "Some day--yes, remember what I say!" For a moment, through the hardness of her mood, a little bit of the old Winona appeared, gentle and tender, as she looked down with the first trace of remorse; but she crushed it immediately, and continued almost mechanically, as if reciting a piece committed to memory: "What I tell you now, I tell you because you are the only one I can trust, and because, no matter what's happened, you are the one I want to understand. I have been married for five years!" At this incredible announcement Dodo let her arms fall, half rising from her seat, open-mouthed. "Married!"