"No, no, I'm not. I mean it. Can't you see what it would mean to me, here alone, night after night, night after night, no one, absolutely no one but myself."
He studied her in amazement. "If it were any other woman than you," he said suddenly, "I should think this was a put-up job to compromise me—a cunning, put-up job. But you! It's amazing! I don't understand it. Why, you'd brand yourself to the whole world. It'd be a mill stone round your neck, not a child."
"Don't you think I'm branded plainly enough already? What do you think a man like Devenish thinks of me?"
"Oh, Devenish be damned! There are other men than Devenish in the world. Men who know nothing; men who'd be ready to marry you."
"Yes, I found one—one who thought me everything—everything till I told him."
"You told him?"
"Yes."
"In the name of God, what for? You must be crazy. What the deuce did you want to tell him for?"
"It was the only fair thing to do," she said quietly.
"Fair? Rot! That's chucking your chances away. That's playing the fool! What's he got to do with your life before you met him?" This was flinging the blame at him.