Read "The Step on the Stair" by Anna Katharine Green online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
I have one more memory of that night. As I was leaving -- for I was resolved to remain at my hotel until our marriage, which, for many reasons, was to be an immediate one without preparation and with but little ceremony, -- I asked my love why in the months of her father's illness, and during the time when perplexities of various kinds were in all our hearts, she never allowed herself to remain alone with me or to go where I went even with her father's permission.
And her answer, given with a smile and a blush was this: