“I know now that I am by nature more worldly than you believed me.”
He grew suddenly sick at her even words. “I was hoping that you would have decided that you cared for me.”
“I am and always shall be grateful to you for the things you did for me, and I shall always appreciate your high opinion of the qualities you believed to exist in me. You were kind and generous—and I shall never forget.”
“But you have no other feeling—toward me?”
She shook her head.
“Then this is final—as far as my hopes are concerned,” he whispered dryly. He was dazed; too dazed to note that she had grown even more pale than a few moments before and that her hands were gripping folds of the velvet gown.
Presently he tried to pull himself together. He remembered the main purpose of his presence here.
“But at least you will let me help you?”
“Certainly—if I need you.”
He leaned closer. “You never needed me more than now!”