"Don't laugh!" she whispered.
"My dear child, I'm as serious as a judge. What are the objections?"
"There is—Noel," she said.
"You will have to chuck Noel," said Max coolly.
That vitalized her very effectually; she turned on him with burning cheeks. "Max, how dare you—how dare you suggest such a thing!"
His eyes met hers, green and dominant. She saw again that old mocking gleam of conscious mastery with which he had been wont to exasperate her. He answered her with a directness almost brutal.
"Because you don't love him."
"I do love him!" she declared fiercely. "I do love him!"
"Better than me?" said Max.
She shrank visibly from the question. "I love him too well to throw him over," she said.