“I am glad you loved me,” she said at last.
“And I am very sorry.”
“You should not say that. If you had not loved me—more than I knew—you would not have written, you would not be what you are. Can you not think of it in that way, sometimes?”
“What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” said George bitterly.
“You have not lost your soul,” answered Constance, whose religious sensibilities were a little shocked, at once by the strength of the words as by the fact of their being quoted from the Bible. “You have no right to say that. You will some day find a woman who will love you as you deserve——”
“And whom I shall not love.”
“Whom you will love as well as you once loved me. You will be happy, then. I hope it may happen soon.”
“Do you?” asked George, turning upon her quickly.
“For your sake I hope so, with all my heart.”
“And for yours?”