Yet as he did so the act seemed to take on the touch of something solemn and valedictory, though he fought back the impression with his still reiterated cry of "I love you!"
"Then why are you unkind to me?" she asked, more calmly now.
"Oh, can't you see I want you—all of you?" he cried.
"Then why do you leave me where so much must be given to other things, to hateful things?" she asked, with her mild and melancholy eyes still on his face.
"God knows, I've wanted you out of it, often enough!" he avowed, desolately. And she made no effort to alleviate his suffering.
"Then why not take me out of it, and keep me out of it?" she demanded, with a cold directness that brought him wheeling about on her.
He suddenly caught her by the shoulders, and held her away from him, at arms' length. She thought, at first, that it was a gesture of repudiation; but she soon saw her mistake. "I swear to God," he was saying to her, with a grim tremor of determination in his voice as he spoke, "I swear to God, once we are out of this affair, it will be the last!"
"It will be the last!" repeated the woman, broodingly, but her words were not so much a declaration as a prayer.