"I can't! You don't know what you're asking, Christina, I've—begged Ronnie before—begged him to run away with me. I can't do that again. It is impossible."
"You need beg nothing—nothing. Just tell him."
She caught the girl to her.
"Beryl, you're going to do what I ask you, dear?"
"Yes—you wouldn't ask me—"
"Out of caprice," finished Christina, "or cussedness, or a wish to try experiments. No. But you must go, Beryl. I—I think I should kill myself if you didn't."
"Christina! What do you mean?"
"I mean it is life to go and death not to go!" said Christina, with a sort of ferocity that staggered her companion. "That is what I mean." In a quieter tone: "Have you seen Ronald lately?"
Beryl shook her head.
"No. I saw him that night—the night they killed Ambrose—oh—"