“Don’t ask me any more; believe what I say, that I am suffering more than you can, and it is my own fault. I am bound by an engagement in which love is out of the question, and always must be. What love is to most women ambition is to me.”
“Do you mean that you will marry for ambition? You, Annie? Wait, wait a little for me; I will get on—I can—I’m not a fool——”
“Hush!” said Annie sharply. “It is impossible; I can never marry you! You are only torturing me, and all to no end. I cannot marry you; I cannot love you!”
“You could if you would, Annie. I could make you love me; you are always happy when you are with me.”
His words moved her, and she stopped him abruptly.
“Happy? Yes, for the time. We have been good friends, that is all. But there is something more in life than you can give me.”
“What is there?”
“Fame, position, the means of getting on.”
“Is that what you care for most?”
“What if it is?”