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CHAPTER VI


PARTIAL CONFIDENCES


Hepworth sat thinking matters over for some time without coming to any definite conclusion. There was some mystery in Elisabeth's life, he finally decided, that had made more than an ordinary impression upon her, but as he was wholly in the dark respecting it he felt unable to talk to her on the subject. He wondered what her secret was, and whether she would eventually reveal it to him. Of one thing he felt assured—the mystery that she concealed had to a certain extent embittered her existence. He had watched her closely and had been struck by the prevailing sadness of her face, which ought to have expressed nothing but happiness and light-hearted feel-

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