“You do love him!” said Cicely. She paused. “Perhaps—after a little—”
“No, I have thought it all out; it can never be. If he should come to me this moment, and tell me that he loved me in spite of everything, it wouldn’t help me; for I should know that it could not last; I should know that, if I should marry him, sooner or later he would hate me; it would be inevitable. Ferdie’s face would come always between us.”
“I hope it may,” said Cicely, savagely. “Why do you keep on staying with me? I don’t wish you to stay. Not in the least.”
“I thought that I could perhaps be of some use. You were so dear to my brother—”
“Much you care for poor old Jack now! Even I care more.”
“Yes, I have changed. But—Jack understands.”
“A convenient belief!”
“And you have his child.”
—“And I am Paul’s sister!”
“Yes; I can sometimes hear of Paul through you.”