`` You are the only woman I can ever love -- and I ca n't give you up unless I have to . Wo n't you be frank with me , dear ? Do you honestly think you can never learn to love me ? '' `` It is not that , '' said Lynde in a hard , unnatural voice . `` I am married already . '' Alan stared at her , not in the least comprehending the meaning of her words . Everything -- pain , hope , fear , passion -- had slipped away from him for a moment , as if he had been stunned by a physical blow . He could not have heard aright . `` Married ? '' he said dully . `` Lynde , you can not mean it ? '' `` Yes , I do . I was married three years ago . '' `` Why was I not told this ? '' Alan 's voice was stern , although he did not mean it to be so , and she shrank and shivered . Then she began in a low monotonous tone from which all feeling of any sort seemed to have utterly faded . `` Three years ago Mother was very ill -- so ill that any shock would kill her , so the doctor Father brought from the lake told us . A man -- a young sea captain -- came here to see Father . His name was Frank Harmon and he had known Father well in the past . They had sailed together .
Father seemed to be afraid XXXXX him -- I had never seen him afraid of anybody before .
ago although at for from in of so that unless