'That will not mend matters.'
'My departure will, at all events, remove all cause for jealousy; and when I am gone you may learn to love her.'
'No; that I swear is impossible!'
'You very likely think so now; but I'm bound to give her every chance of winning you.'
'I say again that that is impossible! I have never seen a woman except yourself I could marry. I tell you so: believe me as you like.... In this matter you are acting like a woman,—you allow your emotions and not your intellect to lead you. By acting thus, you are certainly sacrificing two lives—hers and mine. Of your own I do not speak, not knowing what is passing in your heart; but if by any chance you should care for me, you are adding your own happiness to the general holocaust.' Neither spoke again for some time.
'Why should you not marry her?' Julia said, at the end of a long silence. 'Some people think her quite a pretty girl.'
The lovers looked at each other and smiled sadly. And then, in pathetic phrases, Hubert tried to explain why he could never love Emily. He spoke of his age, and of difference of tastes,—he liked clever women. The conversation fell. At the end of a long silence, Julia said—
'There is nothing for it but my departure, and the sooner the better.'
'You are not in earnest? You are surely not in earnest?'
'Yes, indeed I am.'