But Juliet stood motionless. Her eyes went down the long bare room with its empty forms and ink-splashed desks. She thought it the most desolate place she had ever seen.
After an interval of blank silence Dick spoke again. "Don't you stay! I'm not myself to-night. I can't—think. It was awfully good of you to come. But don't—stay!"
"Dick!" she said.
At sound of her voice he turned. His eyes looked at her out of such a depth of misery as pierced her to the heart. She saw his hands clench against his sides. "O my God!" he said under his breath.
"Dick!" she said again very earnestly. "Don't send me away! Let me help you!"
"You can't," he said. "You've been too good to me—already."
"You wouldn't say that to me if I were—your wife," she said.
He flinched sharply. "Juliet! Don't torture me! I've had—as much as I can stand to-night."
She held out her hand to him with a gesture superbly simple. "My dear, I will marry you to-morrow if you will have me," she said.
He stood for a long second staring at her. Then she saw his face change and harden. The ascetic look that she had noticed long ago came over it like a mask.