Then I ran back to Penelope, and told her I should walk home with Doctor Urquhart; he had something to say to me. She tried anger and authority. Both failed. If we had been summer lovers it might have been different, but now in his trouble I seemed to feel Max's right to me and my love, as I had never done before. Penelope might have lectured for everlasting, and I should only have listened, and then gone back to Max's side. As I did.
His arm pressed mine close; he did not say a second time, “Leave me.”
“Now, Max, I want to hear.”
No answer.
“You know there is something, and we shall never be quite happy till it is told. Say it outright; whatever it is, I shall not mind.”
No answer.
“Is it something very terrible?”
“Yes.”
“Something that might come between and part us?”
“Yes.”