Quite suddenly, he was crying like a child that is forced to realize the infliction of some bitter, almost incredible disappointment.
"Don't you care for me at all, Lily? Has it made you hate me? Don't you realize that I was mad and wicked and a fool; but it was you I cared for, all the time? I thought you understood."
"Nicholas!"
She was touched by him as she had never been before. "Don't—don't! I do understand, I think."
"You were away—and things between us haven't been very happy lately. I don't want to make excuses, Lily, but can't you see a little how it happened?"
"Yes. Oh, Nicholas, the way these things happen—the way everything happens—always out of something else——"
She stopped, unable to express the fullness of her crowding thoughts.
"This—in itself," she said at last timidly, "is only an episode. But all the things that have been leading up to it, Nicholas—the disappointment I've been to you——"
"Never, my darling."
Confronted by his loyally-meant denial of fact, Lily felt helpless.