“It wouldn’t.”
“It would. A girl’s instinct tells her. And I ought to go.”
“What makes you say that?”
“I’m not the wife for you. I’ve given you far more misery than happiness.”
He laughed quietly. “Little sweetheart, if you were to go, I should follow you and follow you.”
She shook her head. “Not far.—Meester Deek, some day you may learn to hate me, so I want to tell you: until I met you, I believed the worst of every man. I was a little stream in a wilderness; I wanted so to find the sea, and it seemed that I never should. But now——”
His clasp on her hand tightened. “But now?”
She looked at him sadly. “I should spoil your whole life. Would you spoil your whole life for the kind of girl I am?”
“Gladly.”
She smiled wistfully. “I wonder how many women have been loved like that.”