"You say that—to me——" she managed to say at last. "Why, everybody knows—all the town knows——" Her voice shook. "I suppose I'll have to leave here now after what's happened. But you'd have to leave if you took up with such as me—even this late, it would ruin you. Don't you think of your own prospects? Why, I couldn't marry you, no matter how much I loved you."
"You don't love me at all?"
"How could I?"
"That's true," said he simply. "How could you?"
"I don't mean that," she corrected herself hastily.
"It's just what I said," he rejoined. "This seems providential to me. I can't allow these people to murder you a dozen times a week the way they will do now. You can't make this fight alone any more, Aurora—I can't any longer bear to see you try it. It's all out now. It's going to be harder for you after this."
She did not make any answer to him at all, but she heard his big voice murmuring on.
"I reckon it's love, after all, Aurora—I don't know. I don't know much about women. I just feel as though I had to take care of you—I feel as though you ought to depend on me. Can't you believe that?"
"I ought not to believe that of any man," she broke out.
"Like enough, like enough," he nodded, "but you've known only one man—that's your full horizon. Now, having had so hard a fight in business, I have put marrying to one side. Let's not say that we're both young—for we're not. But let's remember what I told you—there's a lot of life left for you and me yet if you'll only say the word. Don't you want to make anybody happy?"