“You, of course. I can’t pretend that it’s anything else. I want to do it for you and with you.”
“But it’s for Barney and Nancy that it’s to be done,” she said, and her gravity had deepened. “It’s just the same for them—and you explained yesterday that it would spoil it for them.”
“It may spoil it somewhat,” said Oldmeadow, contemplating her with a curious tranquillity; she was now all that was left him in life to contemplate; and she was all he needed. “But it won’t prevent it. I still think it a wrong thing to do. I still think it a felony. But, since I can’t turn you from it, what I’ve come to see is that it’s, as you said, for you and me, who care for them, to do. It’s not right, not decent or becoming, that anyone who doesn’t even know them should be asked to do such a thing.”
“But Hamilton wouldn’t do it for them,” she said. “It would be for me he would do it. And he wouldn’t think it a felony.”
“All the more reason that his innocence shouldn’t be taken advantage of. I can’t stand by and see it done. It’s for my friends the felony will be committed and it’s I who will bear the burden for them. As to his doing it for you, I know you better than he possibly can know you, and care for you more than he possibly can. If you’re determined on committing a crime, I’ll share the responsibility with you.”
“I know you care more. You are a wonderful friend. You are my best friend in the world.” She gazed at him and he saw that for once he had troubled and perplexed her. “And it’s wonderful of you to say you’ll do it. But Hamilton won’t feel it a burden; not as you will; and for him to do it won’t spoil it for them. If you do it, it will spoil it for them. You said so. And how can I let you do a thing you feel so wrong for my sake?”
“You’ll have to. I won’t have Hamilton sacrificed in order that their cake shall have no burnt edges. They’ll have to pay something for it in social and moral discomfort. It would be nothing to the discomfort of Miss Brown, would it? I shall be able to put it clearly to Barney when I write and tell him that it’s for your sake as well as his and that he and Nancy, who have never sought anything or hoped for anything, are in no way involved by our misdemeanour. I won’t emphasize to Barney what I feel about that side of it. He’s pretty ingenuous, too. It will be a less tidy happiness they’ll have to put up with. That’s all it comes to, as far as they are concerned.”
She was looking at him with the trouble and perplexity and she said:
“They’ll have to pay in far more than social and moral discomfort.”
“Well? In what way? How?” he challenged her.