“Oh, it does no good to talk—let’s just be quiet—I do love you——”
“I must talk,” he replied stubbornly. “You are the dearest thing in the world to me. I couldn’t foresee what happened. It’s only right you should know what occurred after you left Miss Reynolds’s.”
“No! Please no! I have no right to know; and it can make no difference. I knew it was all over when I left the house, but I did want to see you once more——”
She was trying to be brave but the words faltered and died.
“I didn’t discuss you, try to explain you in any way. I only expressed my indignation at the wholly unnecessary manner in which Mrs. Trenton treated you, after encouraging me to believe that you would be treated with every courtesy. I suppose it was jealousy that prompted her to speak to you as she did. Miss Reynolds came in at once. You must have met her—and I took leave after I’d tried to cover up the fact that something disagreeable had happened. That was all.”
“It was enough. There wasn’t a thing you could say. Mrs. Trenton had every right on her side. I hope you’ll go back to her and tell her that any feeling you had for me was just a mistake; make light of the whole thing. Of course she loves you. If she didn’t she wouldn’t be jealous. There’s nothing for you to do now but to make your peace with her. Don’t trouble about me. I don’t want to stand in the way of your happiness.”
“Grace,” he said, patient in spite of her strained petulant tone, “there’s no question of love about it. We know we love each other; but we’ve got to be sane about this.”
“Let’s not talk about it, Ward! You know as well as I do that we’ve reached the end. And please, dear, don’t make it harder for me by pretending it isn’t. I’m not a child, you know.”
“We’re not going to pretend anything, Grace, least of all we’re not going to pretend that everything’s over when we know we couldn’t forget if we wanted to. But we’ve got to have a care for a little while at least, now that Mrs. Trenton knows just enough to arouse her suspicions. I feel my responsibility about you very seriously. Please—won’t you believe me when I say that it’s of you I’m thinking first? We might go on seeing each other as we have been, or I might take you away with me—I’ve thought of that; but I’ve thought too of the danger. I can’t promise you that Mrs. Trenton wouldn’t spy upon us,—do something that would drag you into the newspapers, make an ugly mess. Her prominence would make attractive newspaper material of you and me, too. I love you too dearly to take any chances. Don’t you understand? Isn’t it better——”
“Oh, please stop, Ward! Don’t talk to me as though I were a child! It all comes to the same thing, that we mustn’t see each other any more. I knew it when I left Miss Reynolds’s yesterday. It would have been better if we hadn’t come out here.”