"Is that because of any reason of—his?"
"It's because of a number of reasons, one of which is mine. It's this—that I find it difficult to go away with one man—when I have to turn my back upon the overwhelming debt I owe another. I do owe it—I do. The more I try to ignore it, the more it comes in between me and—"
He pressed forward, raising himself on the first step of the stairs, till his face was on a level with hers. He grew red and stammered:
"But, Miss Guion, you're—you're—in love with him?—the man you'd be going away with?"
She nodded. "Yes; but that wouldn't help me to feel justified with regard to the—the duty—I was leaving behind."
He dropped again to the level of the hall. "I don't understand. Do you mean to say that what I've done for Mr. Guion would keep you from getting married?"
"I'm not prepared to say that. Colonel Ashley is so—so splendid in the way he takes everything that—But I'll say this much," she began again, "that you've made it hard for me to be married."
"How so? I thought it would be all the other way."
"If you'll put yourself in my place—or in Colonel Ashley's place—you'll see. Try to think what it means for two people like us to go away—and be happy—and live in a great, fashionable world—and be people of some importance—knowing that some one else—who was nothing to us, as we were nothing to him—had to deprive himself of practically everything he had in the world to enable us to do it."
"But if it was a satisfaction to him—"