"Give it up!" He was bristling with suspicion at once.
"You must go away."
He laughed scornfully. "That is your kind, considerate way of dismissing me. What vanity! I shall suffer no more than you."
"Not so much," she answered sadly.
"I shall go away and marry."
"You can't make me jealous now, Basil. Not after what you've been to me. I mean just what I say. You must go, and I'll try to be to my husband all a wife should be. If you'd been through what I've been through—that night and since—you'd understand. Basil, do you remember how I lied, how I laughed and cheated—like an 'expert,' as you say. Oh, you must have despised me! If you had done what I did, had done it as fluently, I'd have loathed you."
"And what about me? Didn't I stand there, a contemptible coward, and let him take you away?"
"What else could you have done?"
"Shown myself a man!"
"And ruined me—and my child? Oh, no, dear. You love me too well for that." She startled, listened. "He's coming," she warned, flying to the door. She opened it softly to its full width, advanced composedly into the hall, saying in her usual voice, "Then Jimmie'll take your things down about four o'clock."