John continued. "But is that fair to her? Suppose she loves you—and—you know, if I'm any judge, I think probably she does."
"How could she?" Rodrigo suddenly cried emotionally. "A girl like her—all soul and sweetness. I know that love doesn't demand perfections. If I told her I loved her, I couldn't lie to her—I would have to tell her the whole truth about my past, about Rosa and Sophie and the rest. She might forgive—but she might despise me too. And I couldn't stand that, John. When I first knew I cared for her, I made up my mind to attend strictly to business and to make myself worthy of Mary. And I have. With the exception of that harmless little episode with Sophie Binner, I haven't taken my nose from the grindstone a minute. And yet I'm not the man for a girl like Mary."
"That's just egotism, Rodrigo," John said sternly. "You're setting yourself up as a sort of God over Mary's destiny as well as your own. You haven't looked at the matter from her point of view at all. You think you could be happy with her?"
"I know it—I dream of nothing else!"
"Then why don't you give her the chance to say whether or not she could be happy with you? Perhaps she dreams of nothing else too. None of us are angels. None of us are privileged to ignore any chances of happiness. It's up to each one of us, man or woman, to accept humbly, gratefully, every bit of real happiness and beauty that life sends our way."
"You're right, John," Rodrigo replied simply. He tried to turn the conversation to a lighter vein, to conceal how deeply he was moved. "You're quite a philosopher, aren't you, old man? God bless you for it. I know you think a lot of Mary, and of me, and I'm grateful." His eyes suddenly turned toward the door as he realized that a third person had stepped into the room.
A clerk was standing uneasily just over the threshold, and now said in considerable agitation, "A Mr. Rosner is here to see Mr. Dorning."
"Damn!" exclaimed John. "Send him away and tell him to come back to-morrow. I'm frightfully busy."
The clerk hesitated. "He said it was very urgent."
Dorning had turned his back toward the door and was facing Rodrigo. To his surprise, he saw the latter suddenly stare, grow tense and excited. John wheeled around as Rodrigo took a quick stride toward the door.