A hint of amusement shewed itself in his face.
"Perhaps, but I shouldn't have thought I could help you much," he said. "Unless you mean by going away and staying away?"
"Oh, no, no," she cried in terror. "You mustn't go away, you mustn't leave me alone, I should die if you did that now. It's a thing for both of us to do; we must help one another. We shall make one another stronger. Don't you see what I mean? You won't go?"
He had not fathomed her mood yet, but only one answer to her prayer was possible.
"I won't go as long as you want me," he said.
"You promise? You promise me that?" she insisted.
"Yes, I promise," he assured her with another smile.
"And you'll make it easy for me?" She, in her turn, smiled a moment. "I mean you won't make it too difficult? I must be good, you must let me be good. Some people say you're happy when you're good. I wonder! I shall be very miserable, I know."
The tears were standing in her eyes; she looked indeed very miserable; he kissed her.
"Yes," she murmured, as though he had told her in words that he pitied her very much; she preserved that childlike sort of attitude towards caresses; to Ashley it seemed to make kissing her almost meritorious. She saw no inconsistency between accepting his kisses and holding to her heroic resolution; it seemed almost as though she must be kissed to enable her to hold to her resolution; it was the sympathy, or even the commendation, without which her virtue could not stand.