I coloured. How often she seemed to read my thoughts! 'A friend of Kenneth who often comes to stay with the Forsyths.'
'And what has he to do with you, or you with him?'
I hesitated, then said in a low voice, 'He wanted me to marry him, and I couldn't!'
'Why not?'
'I—I didn't care enough for him, and we should not have suited each other. He leads a very gay life.'
'But I suppose he vowed he would give all that up?'
'Yes, he did; but I don't think he would have done so.'
And then, encouraged by a softening in her tone and manner, I told Miss Rayner all, asking her at the end if she did not think I had acted rightly.
'Quite right,' she said emphatically; 'but be thankful you were not head over ears in love with him, for your decision would have cost you something then.'
She spoke with such intense feeling that I could not help thinking there must be something behind her words, especially when she continued in low, earnest tones: 'Better go through life lonely and single, than tie yourself to a man whose aim and object in life is directly contrary to yours. There can be only misery for both if you act otherwise. And cut the connection at once for his sake, more than for your own. It is only prolonging the agony.'