Alden sat apparently unmoved, but in truth he was beginning to feel very sorry for this woman, but it was with the sorrow we feel for a suffering criminal, and totally distinct from sympathy or affection.
Presently her gust of tears and sobs exhausted itself, and she sighed and dried her eyes and said:
"Yes, I know that all love is quite over between us."
"Quite over," assented Alden, emphatically.
"And it is not to renew that subject that I asked you to stay and listen to me."
"No," said Alden, gently, "I presume not."
"But, though all thoughts of love are forever over between us, yet I can not bear that we should live at enmity. As for me, I am not your enemy, Alden Lytton."
"Nor am I yours, Mrs. Grey. You and I can live as strangers without being enemies."
"Live as strangers! Oh, but that is just what would break my heart utterly! Why should we live as strangers? If all love is over between us, and if we are still not enemies, if we have forgiven each other, why should we two live as strangers in this little town? Why may we not meet at least as the common friends of every day?"
"Because the memory of the past would preclude the possibility of our meeting pleasantly or profitably."