She repeated the words wildly, with all her force.
"Go away! Go! Don't come near me. Don't touch me. Don't even look at me."
"Why not? What's the matter? You're playin' a game, and it ain't fair to go so far. What's the matter, girl? Nettie—you—you ain't gone back on me, are you?"
She could not meet those imploring young eyes, and turned bodily about, so that now her face was to the wall, and her back to him. Her voice sounded muffled, strangled:
"Leave me be. I mustn't see you."
"Why not? Since when? What've I done? I got a right to know. What's happened?"
His voice quavered though he sought manfully to control it. There was a long, tense silence, and then Nettie Day said in a low, dead voice:
"I ain't the same."
"You mean you've changed?" he demanded, and she answered in that same lost voice:
"Yes—all changed. I ain't the same."