"Dolly, what can I say?....

One thing: forgive...Remember, cannot nine years of my life atone for an instant....

" She dropped her eyes and listened, expecting what he would say, as it were beseeching him in some way or other to make her believe differently.

"--instant of passion?" he said, and would have gone on, but at that word, as at a pang of physical pain, her lips stiffened again, and again the muscles of her right cheek worked.