"
XXXIII
As she finished speaking Eve did not lower her eyes. To her
there was no suggestion of shame in her thoughts or her words;
but to Loder, watching and listening, there was a perilous
meaning contained in both.
"Thankfulness?" he repeated, slowly. From his newly stirred
sense of responsibility pity and sympathy were gradually
rising. He had never seen Eve as he saw her now, and his
vision was all the clearer for the long oblivion. With a
poignant sense of compassion and remorse, the knowledge of her
youth came to him--the youth that some women preserve in the
midst of the world, when circumstances have permitted them to
see much but to experience little.
"Thankfulness?" he said again, incredulously.
A slight smile touched her lips. "Yes," she answered, softly.
"Thankfulness that my trust had been rightly placed."
She spoke simply and confidently, but the words struck Loder
more sharply than any accusation. With a heavy sense of
bitterness and renunciation he moved slowly forward.
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