"Then you did interest yourself in me because you cared—precisely as I said," laughed she.
"And I should have given you up if you had succeeded—precisely as I said," replied he.
"You wished me to fail?"
"I wished you to fail. I did everything I could to help you to succeed. I even left you absolutely alone, set you in the right way—the only way in which anyone can win success."
"Yes, you made me throw away the crutches and try to walk."
"It was hard to do that. Those strains are very wearing at my time of life."
"You never were any younger, and you'll never be any older," laughed she. "That's your charm—one of them."
"Mildred, do you still care?"
"How did you know?" inquired she mockingly.
"You didn't try to conceal it. I'd not have ventured to say and do the things I said and did if I hadn't felt that we cared for each other. But, so long as you were leading that fatuous life and dreaming those foolish dreams, I knew we could never be happy."