"Let them expect," muttered Roddick, gruffly.
As of old, he understood the folly of these meetings; the strain was greater than any sane man would subject himself to willingly.
"But I shall be missed if I stay here long, and I dread father finding us out; it would put an end to—to all the world, I think, Leo."
"Janet!" he said sharply.
"Yes?" She looked up, shocked by his tone.
"You shall not say those things. Do you know what it makes me ready to do—when you show your naked heart to me like that? It makes me tell myself that I have only to carry you away from all this to put an end to the struggle. You are such a flimsy weight, too; I could carry you with ease, whether you liked it or not, and then——"
He stopped. A supple strength came into the girl's figure—a strength one would not have expected from its slenderness.
"Leo," she said slowly, "I ask nothing better. I am not afraid to face it."
He hesitated—just for one half-moment. Then he shook her as if she had been a naughty child.