His smile was a mere indrawing of the lips.
"Having opened the door, you would try to shut it again, would you? How like a woman! But I am afraid it can't be done. I had been trying to keep away from that point of view.... There is much to be said on both sides. There was a time when I wouldn't have gone into such a thing as this fight with the junto; but being in, I should have seen it through regardless of the public welfare—ignoring that side of it. I can't do it now; you have shown me that I can't."
"But I don't want to be a stumbling-block," she insisted. "Won't you believe that I wanted to help?"
"I believe that your motive was all it should be; yes. But the result is the same."
Loring and Penelope were coming out, and the end of their privacy was at hand.
"What will you do?" she asked.
"I don't know: nothing that I had meant to do. It was a false start and I am back under the wire again."
"But you must not turn back unless you are fully convinced of the wrong of going on," she protested.
"Didn't you mean to convince me?"
"No—yes—I don't know. I—it seems very clear to me; but I want it to seem clear to you. Doesn't your conscience tell you that you ought to turn back?"