“A dreadful life, which simply causes you suffering,” he asserted.
“If you think so, why do you wish to share it?”
“Because I love you.”
“All the more reason to fly from me, my dear. Any love between us is damned beforehand. You would blush for me; and I should distrust you.”
“I love you,” he persisted.
“To-day. But to-morrow? Obey the order I gave you on my photograph the very first night we met: ‘Do not seek to see me again.’ Now go.”
“Yes,” he said slowly. “Yes. You’re right. But it’s terrible to think that everything is at an end between us before even I have had the time to hope ... and that you will forget me.”
“One does not forget a person who has saved one’s life twice.”
“No: but you will forget that I love you.”
She shook her head and said: “I shall not forget.”