And I'm really afraid to.
LOTH
You were at boarding-school, weren't you?
HELEN
My mother decided that I be sent--on her death-bed.
LOTH
Was your sister there with you?
HELEN
No, she was always at home ... And so when, four years ago, I came back
from school, I found a father--who ... a step-mother--who ... a sister
... guess, can't you guess what I mean!
LOTH
I suppose your step-mother is quarrelsome? Perhaps jealous? unloving?
HELEN
My father...?
LOTH
Well, in all probability he dances to her music. Perhaps she tyrannises
over him?
HELEN
Oh, if it were nothing else?... No! It is too frightful!--You can't
possibly guess that _that_ ... my father ... that it was _my_ father whom
you ...
LOTH
Don't weep, Nellie!... Look, you almost make me feel as though I ought to
insist that you tell ...
HELEN
No, no, it isn't possible. I haven't the strength!--not yet!
LOTH
But you're wearing yourself out this way!
HELEN
But I'm so ashamed, so boundlessly ashamed! Why, you will drive me from
you in horror...! It's beyond anything...! It's loathsome!
LOTH
Nellie, dear, you don't know me if you can think such things of me!
Repulse you! Drive you from me! Do I seem such a brute to you?
HELEN
My brother-in-law said that you would quite calmly .
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