"If you speak to me like that," she cried, "my heart will break!—Must you go away?"
"Dear Miss Palmer,—" faltered Ian.
"Oh!" she ejaculated, with a world of bitterness in the protest.
"—do let us be calm!" continued Ian. "We shall not come to anything if we lose ourselves this way!"
The WE and the US gave her a little hope.
"How can I be calm!" she cried. "I am not cold-hearted like you!—You are going away, and I shall never see you again to all eternity!"
She burst out weeping afresh.
"Do love me a little before you go," she sobbed. "You gave me my life once, but that does not make it right to take it from me again! It only gives you a right to its best!"
"God knows," said Ian, "if my life could serve you, I should count it a small thing to yield!—But this is idle talk! A man must not pretend anything! We must not be untrue!"
She fancied he did not believe in her.