“No, I suppose not,” he returned. “You see, Nona, I had not thought of being fair. I only thought, when the news came so suddenly that I must part from you, of how much I cared for you and hoped you felt as I do.”
Crossing his hands behind him, Philip walked up and down with that little trick of having his head slightly in front of him, which amused Nona always and with which she had grown so familiar. It rather hurt her now, as she stood watching him.
Surely in the three years of her war nursing she should have grown accustomed to the everlasting partings for which, among its other sorrows, war is responsible. Yet lately had she not allowed herself to grow dependent upon her friendship with Philip Dawson, believing that as his work was to report the news of the American camp, he would remain in the same neighborhood as long as she remained? But certainly she had not thought of him as her lover. Their friendship had only been more interesting than any other.
“Won’t you marry me, Nona, when I can come back for you, and not let us discuss being fair just at present?” Philip Dawson protested with a kind of whimsical appeal which was also characteristic of him.
But Nona remained silent.
The moment before she had been surprised now she saw what was at stake with almost painful clearness. Whether she was to lose her friend and lover as well, Nona could not answer him tonight. She had been right, Philip had not been fair.
Men are frequently not fair to girls in this self-same way They will suddenly ask her for all she has to give, her love and the hazard of her life as well, expecting her to have understood and made up her mind before he has spoken. Yet now and then, following this plan, girls have made a tragic mistake. Nona had come near this mistake once, but in Philip Dawson’s case she had not repeated it.
“I am sorry to have you go, Philip, and I shall miss you dreadfully, I don’t care to think how much. But I can’t make you any promise, I can’t answer your question now. If you don’t care for me enough to wait until we have been parted and I have time to think——”
Philip Dawson made an impatient movement.
“Nona, dear, of course I’ll wait if I must. You give me no choice. But I do wish you would remember that I belong to the most impatient profession in the world and that it is a great mistake to spend valuable time in life in making decisions. Will you write me to Paris?”