She spoke first. “Mr. Armour, you said that you brought me here to accomplish a certain purpose, and when it was accomplished I might leave. Has the time not yet come?”
“It has,” he replied with a return to his usual heavy expression. “You may go at any time. My design has been frustrated, as so many of my designs are.”
“I am sorry,” she said, “very sorry, for I know that whatever your purpose was, it was a worthy one.”
“That is a kind thing for you to say,” he responded with unusual animation, “and very fitting. Now you will take this money.”
“I cannot, Mr. Armour, and——”
“You will not,” he said finishing her sentence for her, “not even to gratify me. Well, though you will soon leave me, as I see you plan to do, I shall still have a care of your movements.”
She cast down her eyes. “I will take it,” she said hurriedly. “If you would believe me I would tell you that I am more pained to reject kindnesses from you than you are to have them rejected.”
“Is that the truth?” he asked calmly.
“It is.”
“We shall miss you after you go away,” he went on after he had seen the envelope bestowed in her pocket; “but you, I fancy, will be happy to leave us.”