I shook my head. I could not trust myself to speak.
"Why did you accept him, then?"
"He had been good to me," I faltered.
"Oh, I see. It was his reward, eh?" He sneered in my face. "I came here," he said, "with some idea of patching up things. I wanted to help Bennet. He's in a bad way."
What could I say? After a while he said:
"Will you go back with me? I have him at our rooms."
"It would do no good."
"You mean you could not be made to reconsider the thing? You may be mistaken. You may care for him, after all. There are few like him, I assure you. You're dead lucky to have a man like poor Bennet care for you. He's of the salt of the earth."
"I know; but—I can't deceive him any longer. I'm—in love—with another man."