"Friends!" he cried, and his voice had a razor edge to it. "Friends! It's not true! Do friends run the risks that we have run? For God's sake, here and now let us be honest with each other. Why, we haven't even tried to fool society! For Heaven's sake, Peggy, don't let's try to fool ourselves!"
Peggy rose slowly to her feet, trembling all over. "Colling! oh, Colling!" she said in a piteous voice, "surely people don't think we are——"
"People don't think! People are only too glad to think. You know well enough what is said about others——"
Her face grew paler still, her eyes were wide with fear and slowly dawning realisation. She clasped both hands to her breast, and the light shone upon the rubies set in the old Moorish bracelets that she was wearing.
"Oh!" she said.
He came up to her again.
"Peggy, you don't care, do you?"
"Don't care, Colling!" she gasped. "Tell me, do people think we are——"
"Think!—how can they help thinking it? Haven't we given them every reason?"
"No, no, no! Oh! I hate to think of that! We have only been very fond friends. Why should they think otherwise?"