"I know—I know; and I don't ask you to go there. I think I told you
I had bought a new place. Come there with me."
"Why do you want me to go with you," asks she, lifting her mournful eyes to his, "when you know I do not love you?"
"Yes; I know that." He pauses. "I ask you for many reasons, and not all selfish ones. I ask you for your own sake more than all. The world is cruel, Tita, to a woman who deliberately lives away from her husband; and, besides——"
"I don't care about the world."
"We all care about the world sooner or later, and, besides, you who have been accustomed to money all your life cannot find your present income sufficient for you, and Margaret may marry."
"Oh yes! Yes; I think so." For the first time she shows some animation. "I hope so. You saw them talking together to-day?"
"I did." There is a slight pause, and then: "You are glad for Margaret. You wish everyone"—reproachfully—"to be happy except me."
She shakes her head.
"Give me a kind word before I go," says Rylton earnestly.
"What can I say?"