“No. It is ended. We have grown apart in renunciation for twenty years. I am not one that changes easily, you see. You have taken what I could not withhold from you, and it is yours. I am in your power.”
They heard a great steamer blowing upon the strait. Its voice reverberated through the woods. The girl's beautiful face was full of a tender wistfulness, half maternal. Neither jealousy nor pique marred its exquisite sympathy. It was such an expression as an untamed wood-nymph might have worn, contemplating the life of man.
“Don't be sad,” she breathed.
Vague terror shot through Maurice's gaze.
“That is a strange thing for you to say to me, Lily. Is it all you can say—when I love you so?”
“I was thinking of the other woman. Did she suffer?”
“At any rate, she has the whole world now—beauty, talent, wealth, social prestige. She is one of the most successful women in this country.”
“Do I know her name?”
“Quite well. She has been a person of consequence since you were a child.”
“I couldn't capture the whole world,” mused Lily. Maurice kissed her small fingers.