"
The uneasy beating of his foot suddenly stopped, and he leaned
forward eagerly across the table.
"My act?" he said. "What reason can there be on my side for
withdrawing?"
I heard her breath quickening--I felt her hand growing cold. In
spite of what she had said to me when we were alone, I began to be
afraid of her. I was wrong.
"A reason that it is very hard to tell you," she answered. "There
is a change in me, Sir Percival--a change which is serious enough
to justify you, to yourself and to me, in breaking off our
engagement."
His face turned so pale again that even his lips lost their
colour. He raised the arm which lay on the table, turned a little
away in his chair, and supported his head on his hand, so that his
profile only was presented to us.
"What change?" he asked. The tone in which he put the question
jarred on me--there was something painfully suppressed in it.
She sighed heavily, and leaned towards me a little, so as to rest
her shoulder against mine. I felt her trembling, and tried to
spare her by speaking myself. She stopped me by a warning
pressure of her hand, and then addressed Sir Percival one more,
but this time without looking at him.
"I have heard," she said, "and I believe it, that the fondest and
truest of all affections is the affection which a woman ought to
bear to her husband.
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