"Was it hard, dear Ashley?" she whispered.
"I knew how it would be from the moment you went away," was his answer.
"Then why did you let me go?" she asked quickly, and, as he fancied, rather reproachfully. She seemed to snatch at a chance of excusing herself.
"You wanted to go."
Ora looked a little troubled; she knit her brows and clasped her hands; she seemed to be turning what he said over in her mind. She did not deny its truth, but its truth distressed her vaguely.
"It's no use bothering ourselves trying to explain things," Ashley went on more lightly. "It's all over now, anyhow." He was conscious of the old weakness—he could not cause her pain. His impulse even now was to make her think that she had been in all things right.
"Yes." Her dark eyes rested on his face a moment. "You liked it while it lasted?"
"Very much," he admitted, smiling again for a moment. "But it's over. I'm sorry it's over, you know."
"Are you, Ashley? Really sorry?" He nodded. "So am I," she said with a sigh.