“Won’t you take off your hat and let me see your beautiful hair?”
She refused, and asked him more about Mendel, and in exasperation at the unintended snub he told her the true story of Hetty Finch, not concealing his own share in it, but implying that Mendel’s terrible immorality had corrupted him and led to his downfall.
The story was received in silence.
At last she said:—
“And what is going to become of Hetty Finch?”
“That’s the extraordinary part of it,” said Mitchell. “She has found someone to marry her.”
He leaned against the mantelpiece and dropped his head in his hands and groaned.
“Gawd!” he said. “If it weren’t for you I don’t know what would become of me.” And he was so moved by his own thoughts that tears trickled down his nose and made dark spots on the whitened hearth.
“I can’t ask you to marry me,” he said mournfully. “I’m unworthy, but I want to be your friend.”