"Indeed? Then why choose just to-night to tell me?—you've had plenty of other chances. And to-night I had enjoyed the theatre, and the music, and coming out into the air ..."
"I'm sorry. But I've put it off too long as it is. I ought to have told you before.—Louise ... you must see that things can't go on like this any longer?"
His voice begged her for once to look at the matter as he did. But she heard only the imperative.
"Must?" she repeated. "I don't see—not at all."
"Yes.—For your sake, I must go."
"Ah!—that makes it clearer. People have been talking, have they? Well, let them talk."
"I can't hear you spoken of in that way."
"Oh, you're very good. But if we, ourselves, know that what's being said is not true, what can it matter?"
"I refuse to be the cause of it."
"Do you, indeed?" She laughed. "You refuse? After doing all you can to make yourself indispensable, you now say: get on as best you can alone; I've had enough; I must go.—Don't say it's on my account—that the thought of yourself is not at the bottom of it—for I wouldn't believe you though you did."