“Then don’t trouble, dear. People will continue to talk. But as long as I don’t fizzle out, they’ll also continue to ask me to their parties.”
“And is there no danger—of anything else?” persisted Rose.
“Of my falling in love with Dick, you mean? Not the slightest.”
“Then you wouldn’t mind if he went off exploring again?”
Cecily started. “Yes, I should,” she returned, quickly. “I couldn’t bear it.”
“Why?”
“Why?” She looked at her friend in bewilderment. “Because of everything. Because of—— Why, he’s made everything possible. My book—all the people I’ve got to know. I was all to pieces when Dick came home. He put me together again, and stood me on my two feet, and——”
“And yet you are in no danger.”
Cecily looked at her a full moment without speaking, and it was Rose who again broke the silence.
“My dear, when a woman relies on a man like that, when she can’t picture life without him, there is always danger.”