“Did I ever want you!”
“But as much as you wanted her?”
“Differently, yes.”
“You poor boy. And you didn’t get either of us.”
“Couldn’t be helped, Ruthie. That’s life—to be always wanting and never getting. But I have you now and, perhaps, one day——”
“But how can you? She’s married.”
“One can’t tell. Things come unexpectedly. I didn’t expect half-an-hour ago that I’d be with you.”
She fell to asking me little stabbing questions. When I only answered her vaguely, “Don’t let’s start with secrets,” she implored me.
“But it’s five years—there’s so much to explain.”
“Yes—on both sides.”