“Something similar to what has just happened was bound to happen if you appeared in New York openly together—only it might have been a great deal worse. And that worse thing would inevitably have happened if you two had registered. I thought you would have considered this danger.”
“I had thought of it, yes,—that is, before to-day. But to-day so much was happening to me—it was all so sudden—that all day I was thinking of other things.”
He looked at her sharply, a sudden leaping at his heart. Was he in any way concerned in those other things? But he put the question from him.
Abruptly he obeyed an impulse that had been growing in him. “May I break my promise to the extent of telling you of a few matters?”
“Please do.”
“You have chosen your own way,” he said, in even tones, looking very straight into her dark eyes, “but—well, after all, I want you to make the best of it for yourself. These few facts—perhaps you know them already—may help you. First, and I say this without any personal prejudice to Jack, Jack has the reputation of caring for many women often rather than for one woman long. Second, largely for business reasons, Mr. Morton desires to have Jack marry a girl from Chicago. Third, this girl’s parents will not consider such a marriage until Jack has proved that he has settled down; therefore, it naturally is Mr. Morton’s dominating desire at present that Jack should become a steady business man. He’d like to have Jack enter the New York offices of his firm. That is all. If you think these matters over, perhaps you will see a way in which they may serve you.”
“Perhaps I shall. Thank you.” She moved to the elevators, and stood silent until a car opened. “Good-night,” she said, and stepped inside.
“Good-night,” he returned.
He stood an instant after her car had shot upward. She had chosen her own course. And this was only the beginning of the consequences. What might the ending be?