"I'm not going to be unkind, but there must be a difference."
"Yes," she said in a wondering tone. "There must, I suppose. But you'll come often?"
He meant never to come.
"Now and then, dear," he said. Then he kissed her; that he had not meant to do; and she kissed him.
"Ashley," she whispered, "perhaps he won't be kind to me; perhaps—oh, I never thought of that! Perhaps he'll be cruel, or—or not what I've fancied him. Ashley, my love, my love, don't leave me altogether! I can't bear it, indeed I can't. I shall die if you leave me."
She was terrified now at the thought of the unknown man waiting for her and the loss of the man whom she knew so well. Her dramatic scenes helped her no more; her tears and terror now were unrehearsed; she clung to his hand as though it held life for her.
"Oh, how did I ever think I could do it?" she moaned. "Are we going slower? Is the train stopping? Oh, are we there, are we there?"
"We've not begun to go slower yet," he said. In five minutes they must arrive.
"Stay with me till I see him; you must stay; you must stay till I've seen what—what he's going to be to me. I shall kill myself if you leave me."
"I'll stay till you've found him," Ashley answered in a hard restrained voice. "Then I must go away."