he said at last. "I suppose they have seen that there is
something--something wrong--with--"

He spoke very slowly, and finally he stopped without finishing the
sentence.

Queenie gravely took it up for him.

"Something wrong with you? Of course I have. Well?"

"I don't know why I am telling you this. I didn't mean to tell any one.
But--but--well, I've begun; I may as well finish. You're not a person
who would talk about anybody else's secrets more than about your own."

"A secret? Are you going to tell me a secret?"

Dudley smiled very faintly, and then his expression suddenly changed.
Something like a spasm of fear and of pain shot quickly across his face,
frightening her a little. Then he shook his head.

"No," said he. "I hardly think you will consider it a secret, after what
you have just told me. I am only going to tell you this: I have had a
great trouble, a great affliction, hanging over me for some time now.
Sometimes I have thought it was going to clear away and leave me as I
was before. Sometimes I have felt myself quite free from it, and able to
go on in the old way. But with this consciousness, this knowledge
hanging over me always, I have behaved in all sorts of strange ways,
have hurt the feelings of my friends, have not been myself at all. You
know that, Queenie."