"I'm afraid about Winchie."
"Oh—of course. Does he threaten to—" Basil halted.
"No. But— Basil, you must go."
"Go? It's perfectly safe here."
"Yes. But I've no right to see you, after the way he has acted—until I'm free." All true enough; yet she could not make her voice sound right to herself. "It isn't wise and it isn't honorable," she ended haltingly.
She saw, or rather felt, him eying her somberly. "When will you be free?" he asked in a constrained tone.
"In a few months—I think."
"And then we shall marry at once." He said it in the tone a man uses when he wishes to convince himself and another that what he is saying is the matter of course.
She did not answer.
He laughed unpleasantly. "You don't seem overjoyed at the prospect."