Her face went red, and she turned away all at once. A wave of pity went through him that he should have been tempted by his vanity, for he knew that it lay no deeper than that. He swore at himself and said:
“So you’ve come to me for advice?”
She turned quickly.
“And what do you say?” she said, so low that he could scarcely distinguish it.
“Do you mean if I told you not to do it, you’d chuck it to the winds?”
She started twice to answer and stopped. Finally, she said:
“If you told me your reason—I would.”
“Myrtle, you did right to come to me,” he said decisively. “This is my answer: Placed as you are, with what’s ahead, there’s no two ways about it—it’s too big, too wonderful. Marry him!”
She did not move. The words seemed to have left so little impression on her that he was wondering if she had understood them, when, all at once, she looked up and said:
“You mean that?”