“Forgive me. I have hurt you,” he said, in contrition.
“No, you do not understand. And Olive has been so good to me. She takes charge of all my affairs—” She hesitated. “I don’t even know what my income is, or”—with a pathetic engaging smile—”whether I have an income at all. And I’m afraid I spend a great deal.”
He straightened his shoulders. “I am very glad of that. I will work for you. I can wring gold from the world.” Rapid calculations flashed through his mind—already he regretted his last year’s inactivity, the destruction of his picture.
She was blushing adorably. “No, I could not take anything from you ... if we lived apart. No, no.”
“Not from me? Oh, Eleanor. Then we must make our home together.”
“But don’t I tell you that is impossible?” she said, almost pettishly, on the brink of tears. “The world would get to know the truth. There is that Ruth Hailey you spoke of, who knows your brother, and who through her connection with Linda Verder gets brought into contact with all sorts of people. And your wife would hear of it, too. Unscrupulous persons would egg her on to move. There would be blackmailing, everything sordid and horrible.” She shuddered violently.... “Oh, you do not know the world—you have lived with your eyes shut, fixed on inward visions.”
He opened them now, startled to find himself lectured for want of worldliness by this ethereal creature. She dissipated his uneasy bewilderment by a swift transition, her face dimpled itself with reassuring smiles. She pulled the little curly lock at his forehead with a fascinating tug.
“Don’t be such a hot-headed Quixote, dear. There is time enough to plan out the future. Circumstances may change—” Her face saddened. “The poor creature may be taken ... and your idea may seem more plausible when I have got used to it—you come with a rush and a crash—like those waves that night.” She smiled wistfully. “And I am only a woman, and timid. Can’t you see I have been frightened to death all this last half-hour?”
“Frightened of me?”
“No,” with a pathetic smile. “Frightened of Olive. Twenty times I thought I caught her footsteps.”