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while in quiet, but after that, Sybelle started to slip out of the bed. |
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''Where do you go?" Walter asked. |
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"Hush, go to sleep," she replied, surprised by the anxiety in his voice. "I only wish to fold our clothing, snuff out the candles, and the light and night light. What troubles you?" |
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Their coupling in that manner so soon after he had made the assertion that Marie had never been his mistress had kept the whole thing in his mind. Instead of sleeping, as he expected, Walter had been thinking that Sybelle had not made any reply to his statement. Her willingness to make love was probably answer enough in her mind, Walter knew, but he wanted the slate wiped clean by a clear acceptance of what he had said. |
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"I cannot bear that there should be any doubt between us," he added. "I must be sure you know that what happened with Marie was only a mistake. I would not have gone with her, only that I could not have you and . . . and I needed a woman. I wished to tell you, but it seemed unfair to her and I had been warned so straitly of your jealous nature that I thought it wiser, since I had no intention of renewing the encounter, to forget it." |
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Sybelle looked down at him. "I was wrong to mistrust you," she said slowly, "for I knew you to be an honest man. And I was wrong to threaten you this afternoon when you told me you must go to Hay. For that discourtesy I ask pardon." |
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Walter made a gesture of dismissing the need for any apology, but he saw that she had more to say and did not speak. |
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"Perhaps I am also wrong," she continued, "in asking more of you than is a wife's right to ask, but I do not know any other way to live. I must tell you that no man of my family thinks himself free to have any woman besides his wife." |
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She hesitated, and Walter said soberly, "So I have been told." |
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But Sybelle shook her head. She might not have had the courage to begin the discussion, but since it was started she wished to say everything and be done. "I am willing to do anything you ask of me," she said earnestly, "to give you pleasure in any way you wish. Teach me. You will find me |
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