What was to happen she
did not know. She felt a dread so heavy that it crushed all else from
her mind. They had reached a crisis where everything had stopped, a
dark and baleful focus to which all that had gone before had been
slowly converging. The whole journey had been leading to this climax
of suspended breath and fearful, inner waiting.
She heard the scraping of ascending feet, and when she saw David stared
at him, her eyes unblinking in stony expectancy. He came and stood
before her, and she knew that at last he had guessed, and felt no fear,
no resistance against the explanation that must come. He suddenly had
lost all significance, was hardly a human organism, or if a human
organism, one that had no relation to her. Neither spoke for some
minutes. He was afraid, and she waited, knowing what he was going to
say, wishing it was said, and the hampering persistence of his claim
was ended.
At length he said tremulously:
"Susan, I saw you last night. What did you do it for? What am I to
think?"
That he had had proof of her disloyalty relieved her. There would be
less to say in this settling of accounts.
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