'It was that letter that drove her to it. It
was most ill-advised. I told you so. You should have written. She would
have borne the news better had it come from you. My instinct told me so,
but I let myself be persuaded. I told you how it would happen. I told you.
You can't say I didn't. Oh! why did you persuade me--why--why--why?'
'Julia dear, we are not responsible. We were in nowise bound to sacrifice
our happiness to her----'
'Don't say a word! I say we were bound. Life can never be the same to me
again.'
Hubert did not answer. Nothing he could say would be of the slightest
avail, and he feared to say anything that might draw from her expressions
which she would afterwards regret. He had never seen her moved like this,
nor did he believe her capable of such agitation, and the contrast of her
present with her usual demeanour made it the more impressive.
'Oh,' she said, leaning forward and looking at him fixedly, 'take this
nightmare off my brain, or I shall go mad! It isn't true; it cannot be
true. But--oh! yes, it's true enough.'
'Like you, Julia, I am overwhelmed; but we can do nothing.'
'Do nothing!' she cried; 'do nothing! We can do nothing but pray for
her--we who sacrificed her.
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