"You can do nothing; no one can do nothing," she said, and the tears trembled in her handsome eyes. "He wants me to go away and live with him, so that his wife may be able to divorce him."
"Wants you to go away and live with him! But surely, Esther, you do not——"
"Yes, he wants me to go and live with him, so that his wife can get a divorce," Esther answered, for the suspense irritated her; "and how can I refuse to go with him?"
"Esther, are you serious? You cannot… You told me that you did not love him, and after all——" He waited for Esther to speak.
"Yes," she said very quickly, "there is no way out of it that I can see."
"Esther, that man has tempted you, and you have not prayed."
She did not answer.
"I don't want to hear more of this," he said, catching up his hat. "I shouldn't have believed it if I had not heard it from your lips; no, not if the whole world had told me. You are in love with this man, though you may not know it, and you've invented this story as a pretext to throw me over. Good-bye, Esther."
"Fred, dear, listen, hear me out. You'll not go away in that hasty way.
You're the only friend I have. Let me explain."
"Explain! how can such things be explained?"