She was the only person in the room with us when--when----" "When ?" said Betty.
Lady Anstruthers shuddered.

She leaned forward and caught Betty's hand between her own shaking ones.
"He struck me! He struck me! He said it never happened--but it did--it did! Betty, it did! That was the one thing that came back to me clearest.

He said that I was in delirious hysterics, and that I had struggled with his mother and himself, because they tried to keep me quiet, and prevent the servants hearing.

One awful day he brought Lady Anstruthers into the room, and they stood over me, as I lay in bed, and she fixed her eyes on me and said that she--being an Englishwoman, and a person whose word would be believed, could tell people the truth--my father and mother, if necessary, that my spoiled, hysterical American tempers had created unhappiness for me--merely because I was bored by life in the country and wanted excitement.

I tried to answer, but they would not let me, and when I began to shake all over, they said that I was throwing myself into hysterics again.