A great fear took possession of Burton then, for he was the
veriest moral coward in the world, and before Hannah could say another
word, he continued:
"Yes, Aunt Wetherby was right. There is something; there has always been
something; but don't tell me, please, I'd rather not know."
He spoke very gently for him, for somehow, there had been awakened
within him a great pity for his sister, and by some sudden intuition he
seemed to understand all her loneliness and pain. If there had been a
wrongdoing it was not her fault; and as she still stood with her back to
him, and did not speak, he went up to her, and laying his hand upon her
shoulder, said to her:
"I regret that I asked a question which has so agitated you, and,
believe me, I am sorry for you, for whatever it is, you are innocent."
Then she turned toward him with a face as white as ashes and a look of
terror in her large black eyes, before which he quailed. Never in his
life, since he was a little child, had he seen her cry, but now, after
regarding him fixedly a moment, she broke into such a wild fit of
sobbing that he became alarmed, and passing his arm around her, lead her
to a seat and made her lean her head upon him, while he smoothed her
heavy hair, which was more than half gray, and she was only three years
his senior.
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