This was a startling relief to him:
“Thank heaven I was mistaken in your expression of ‘death of innocence.’ But you humiliate, crush me, with a sense of my own unworthiness, to say I have been your standard. What made me listen to idle gossip of the Club—why did I act a brute, a coward?” his lips moved nervously.
“Dearest, show yourself now magnanimous, forgive it all, and forget it. You are so brave and strong—so beautiful—take me back.”
“Was it I who sent you away?”
“Oh! do you not see how humiliating are these reminders? I have confessed my wrong.”
“But would I not still be a burden; you said I could not bear poverty?” she asked.
He looked up with an expression of painful surprise:
“Don’t, don’t! I know now that love is the crown and fulfillment of all earthly good. Have you quit caring for me? I infer as much.”
Hastening to undo the effect of her last words, she said: