"I can't believe it of him," he said. "Such a disgusting rôle! So unmanly!"
Doris smiled at him sadly.
"Does it seem unmanly to you?" she said meditatively. "It seems to me it wouldn't be manly to say no to a woman who loves him and has been as unhappy as I have been."
Yes, Williams could see that point of view too. Hale might say to himself that a girl who had lived those years of self-abnegation had a right to his love and Southgate's money, if she wanted them both; that it wasn't his part to take a noble stand for which she must pay. There was a certain nobility in not caring what the world said of him.
And yet—
He tried one last argument.
"Well, then for yourself; can't you see that it's contemptible to cling so to a fortune? What's poverty, after all? You're young. Marry the young man."
She stared at him.
"But, Mr. Williams," she said, "that's exactly what I promised Antonia I wouldn't do."
"Break your promise."