"You poor, dear girl," he tried to draw her closer. The thought of that frail, sweet beauty being cooped up in that steaming hell that she had depicted incensed him, made him want to take her in his arms and hold her, protect her, comfort her. But she waved him aside impatiently.
"Hugh-san, don't caress me. I am going to tell you something I have never told any one, and then, Hugh-san, you'll understand why you and I can never be more than this, just friends. Maybe you won't want to be even that then, but I'm going to tell you." There was an uncanny high pitch of excitement in her voice. She was becoming overwrought, possibly a little hysterical. He tried to quiet her. "No, Sadako-san, don't think of these things. They are all over now. I don't want to hear any more about all that. I shall take care of you and protect you."
"But you must hear." He could feel the small hands lying in his clench tightly as she fought for self-control. She looked straight into his eyes. "In that factory the Oharas themselves never came, but they had a banto, a young clerk, who came often to look after the business. Once when I was so sick that I had not been able to drag myself to work, he inspected the dormitory and found me alone there. He was very kind. We talked and we became very friendly. He said he felt sorry for me, that I was different from the other girls and that he would get me better work. And he did. I got a job in the office, and gradually things became better with me. I saw him often then; and, Hugh-san," by an effort of will she was keeping her gaze straight into his, "I came to think that I loved him.
"Then one night, it was fine moonlight, and I walked out into the garden. My work was not so hard, and I didn't have to think of sleep always. There had been a little party over at the head overseer's house, and that man, the man I'm telling you about, came back from there, through the garden. He saw me. He had been drinking sake, but he was not drunk, and I was always glad to see him, and I ran up to him. But he just took me in his arms roughly, and pulled me over into the shadow and forced me down on the ground, and--oh, Hugh-san----" Her eyes wavered, fell. She threw herself forward, on his shoulder, voice half-smothered, sobbing. "And I had really loved him. There in that horrible factory, he had been good to me, and had helped me, and he was the only one in the world who cared for me, and--and I think that if he had only held me gently, and spoken softly to me and loved me,--yes, Hugh-san, I think I should have done anything he wanted. But now I hated him, even more than I would have hated any other man, and I shall always hate him.