“You do. Love like yours comes only once in a woman’s eyes. I saw it——”
“You’re mistaken.”
“No. And it isn’t quenched with laughter——”
“Don’t, Nellie.”
“I must. You’re trying to kill something in you that will not die.”
“It’s dead now.”
“No—nor even sleeping. Don’t you suppose I read you, silly child, your false gayety, the mockery of your smiles, and the way you’ve thrown Coley Van Duyn into the breach to soothe your pride—even let an engagement be undenied so that Phil could think how little you cared? You once let me behind the scenes; no matter how much you regret it, I’m still there.”
“Mr. Gallatin is nothing to me.”
Mrs. Pennington leaned back in her chair and smiled.
“You told me that your faith in Phil was unending. Your eternity, my dear, lasted precisely one week.”