She looked at him, smiling, but her hand shook.
"Good-by," he said, kissing it.
"Good-by? You are going—?"
"To get my letter."
"Your letter? The letter won't matter, if you will only do what I ask."
He returned her gaze. "I might, I suppose, without being out of character. Only, don't you see that if your plan helped me it could only harm her?"
"Harm her?"
"To sacrifice you wouldn't make me different. I shall go on being what I have always been—sifting and sorting, as she calls it. Do you want my punishment to fall on her?"
She looked at him long and deeply. "Ah, if I had to choose between you—!"
"You would let her take her chance? But I can't, you see. I must take my punishment alone."