The broken sentence hung suspended.  Violet, notwithstanding his hurried gesture, could not restrain herself from stealing a look at his face.  It was set in horror and, though partially turned aside, made an appeal to her compassion to fill the void made by his silence, without further suggestion from him.

She did this by saying tentatively and with as little show of emotion as possible: 

“You feared that the event called for vengeance and that vengeance would mean increased suffering to yourself as well as to another?”

“Yes; great suffering.  But I may be under a most lamentable mistake.  I am not sure of my conclusions.  If my doubts have no real foundation—­if they are simply the offspring of my own diseased imagination, what an insult to one I revere!  What a horror of ingratitude and misunderstanding—­”

“Relate the facts,” came in startled tones from Violet.  “They may enlighten us.”

He gave one quick shudder, buried his face for one moment in his hands, then lifted it and spoke up quickly and with unexpected firmness: 

“I came here to do so and do so I will.  But where begin?  Miss Strange, you cannot be ignorant of the circumstances, open and avowed, which attended my wife’s death.  But there were other and secret events in its connection which happily have been kept from the world, but which I must now disclose to you at any cost to my pride and so-called honour.  This is the first one:  On the morning preceding the day of Mrs. Upjohn’s death, an interview took place between us at which my father was present.  You do not know my father, Miss Strange.  A strong man and a stern one, with a hold upon old traditions which nothing can shake.  If he has a weakness it is for my little boy Roger in whose promising traits he sees the one hope which has survived the shipwreck of all for which our name has stood.  Knowing this, and realizing what the child’s presence in the house meant to his old age, I felt my heart turn sick with apprehension, when in the midst of the discussion as to the terms on which my wife would consent to a permanent separation, the little fellow came dancing into the room, his curls atoss and his whole face beaming with life and joy.

“She had not mentioned the child, but I knew her well enough to be sure that at the first show of preference on his part for either his grandfather or myself, she would raise a claim to him which she would never relinquish.  I dared not speak, but I met his eager looks with my most forbidding frown and hoped by this show of severity to hold him back.  But his little heart was full and, ignoring her outstretched arms, he bounded towards mine with his most affectionate cry.  She saw and uttered her ultimatum.  The child should go with her or she would not consent to a separation.  It was useless for us to talk; she had said her last word.  The blow struck me hard, or so I thought, till I looked at my father.  Never had I beheld such a change as that one moment had made in him.  He stood as before; he faced us with the same silent reprobation; but his heart had run from him like water.