“And now, I suppose, if he helps me, you’ll fall in love with him?”
“O, Richard! how absurd you are! Can’t you see, dear? And they call women illogical.”
“Never mind about that, Ira. You’re a very much abused sex, by all who don’t know you. Well, you think I’m justified in going to Johnny?”
“Yes, indeed. I think now, perhaps, it might be the very best thing you could do. I’m sure he’d take care of you for my sake. Only——”
“Only what, Ira?”
She put her young arms about my neck, tearfully, entreatingly:
“Must you take this man with you, Richard?”
“Geoletti, do you mean?”
“How is he so much better than the other? To know of that dreadful thing, and keep it secret just for his own profit!”
“He was educated to another code of morals than ours, Ira. It’s no good thinking of the gulf between us; but you must see that his company is indispensable to me.”