“I can’t.”
“You mean you’d feel too deeply humiliated?”
“I wasn’t thinking of my own disgrace. I was thinking of mother and father.” There was no trace of emotion in her voice; she stated the fact calmly.
“I can’t go back to Brookhollow. It’s ended. I couldn’t bear to let them know what has happened to me.”
“What did you think of doing?” he asked uneasily. 125
“I must think of mother—I must keep my disgrace from touching them—spare them the sorrow—humiliation––” Her voice became tremulous, but she turned around and sat up in her chair, meeting his gaze squarely. “That’s as far as I have thought,” she said.
Both remained silent for a long while. Then Ruhannah looked up from her pale preoccupation:
“I told you I had three thousand dollars. Why can’t I educate myself in art with that? Why can’t I learn how to support myself by art?”
“Where?”
“Here.”