"Not a blessed thing. That's your affair."
"Pity you didn't know in time to spare you the trip."
"I'm not sure, Linda. Knowing you as I did, I don't think I'd have believed anything I didn't see with my own eyes——"
"Anything so greatly to my discredit, of course!"
"Easy, Linda! I didn't say that. You know best what you want—that's something nobody else can ever tell one. I'm not criticizing, I'm merely explaining."
"And very good of you, I'm sure."
But Lucinda had not been able to utter the taunt without a tremor.
Bellamy gave his head a stubborn shake and stepped nearer. "Please don't be angry because of anything stupid I may say. You see, you misunderstand me: I came out here that first time dead-set to win you back at any cost, still madly in love with you, absolutely unable to conceive of a life that didn't pivot on you, Linda. I was prepared to give you any pledges you could possibly ask——"
"Did you flatter yourself any pledge you could give would mean anything to me, when you'd broken your word so often?"
"I hoped I could make you understand what a blow your leaving me had been, how it had brought me to my senses at last, jolted me up on the water-wagon, where I've been ever since—I haven't had a suspicion of a drink, Linda, since that night you ran away—and made me see what an unspeakable rotter I'd been, fooling around with women as I had. That's another thing I cut out like a shot. I haven't looked sideways at another woman since...."