It was not injured pride, it was not humiliation, it was not fear; it was something vague and terrible that lay far deeper than any of these.

Under ordinary circumstances she would have liked to have spoken out her mind and given back as good as she got; and even as the thoughts whirled through her brain they came in a torrent of vague vituperative eloquence.

But now her tongue was tied.

Instinctively she knew that she had put it out of her power to revenge, or even to defend herself.

She was tied to the stake, and must suffer without effort and in silence.
Most humiliating of all was the thought that she must propitiate the man who had so wounded her.