The other turned toward him a face contracted with a look of pain.
"Don't, Maurice," he protested. "I can't joke about it. It was not anything to be proud of; and nobody knows better than I how far I am from being a hero."
"Oh, you're modest, of course. That's like you; but I call it stunning.
Mrs. Fenton must have admired you tremendously."
"Do you suppose she did?" Philip demanded impetuously. Then his voice altered. "Oh, she knows me too well!" he added.
The intense bitterness of his tone gave Maurice a shock.
"Phil!" cried he.
His companion apparently understood the thought which lay behind the exclamation. He dropped his head, and for a little distance they walked in silence.
"I may as well tell you," Ashe said in a moment. "It is true, what you guess. I—I have been thinking of her more than was right. That is one reason why I am glad to get back to the Clergy House."
"To give her up?"
"She was not mine to give up."