..as well now as
any time."
"Oh, very well. I must write just one letter."
She ran into the house and up the stairs and shut herself in the library,
breathless, panic-stricken. He was going to confess! How awful! How awful!
How could she ever go through with it? Why, why, hadn't she spoken at once
and got it over?
She sat quite still until she had ceased trembling and her heart no longer
pounded and affected her breathing. Then she set her teeth and went
downstairs.
CHAPTER XII
I
Mortimer was walking up and down the hall.
"Come in here," he said. He entered the drawing-room, and Alexina followed
like a culprit led to the bar. Nevertheless, it crossed her mind that he
wanted the moral support of a mantelpiece.
She almost stumbled into a chair. Mortimer did not avail himself of the
chimneypiece toward which he had unconsciously gravitated, but walked back
and forth. Two electric lights hidden under lamp shades were burning, but
the large room was rather somber.
Alexina composed herself once more with a violent effort and asked in a
crisp tone: "Well? What is this mystery? Are you in love with some one
else? Been, making love--"
"Alexina!"
He confronted her with stricken eyes. "You know that I am literally
incapable of such a thing. But of course you were jesting."
"Of course. But something is so manifestly wrong with you, and...well.
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