How could Marie have known?
Had not his letters for the last three months been misleading enough to deceive the sharpest eyes?
And yet he felt unreasonably that she ought to have known--there was a blind clamour in him against the bluntness of her sisterly perception.
His silence was so prolonged that Madame de Chateauvieux was startled by it.

She slipped her hand into his arm.

'Eustace!' Still no answer.

'Have I said anything to annoy you--Eustace?
Won't you let your old sister have her dreams ?' But still it seemed impossible for him to speak.

He could only lay his hand over hers with a brotherly clasp.