“I shall gain you.”
She shook her head.
“Why not gain both?”
“Ah, but you say it is impossible!”
“I do not say so. What need is there to wear our hearts upon our sleeves?” She touched his sleeve now, insinuating caressing fingers. “Darling, don’t you see how hard it would be for me to bear—I am not a man. The worst of the scorn would be for me. Society is very hard upon those who will not be unconventional in secret. I have not your courage and strength. You will not shame me.”
He weakened.
“Oh, I am thoughtless,” he said, and stood miserable, unconscious of the caressing fingers.
Then his brow lightened.
“Nobody knows I’m married. If we came back and set up house together, people would think we had been married abroad.”
She put her hands to her face with a desperate gesture. “Oh, but I could not bear Olive to know.”