“Then I mustn’t make you hate me.” (Again that infernal fighting-with-repressed feeling note.) “Well, you know you have my deepest sympathy,” I added hastily.
She certainly had. My Irish heart melts at a tale of woe, or is roused to fiery wrath at the recital of a wrong. I feel far more keenly than the person concerned. Yet, alas! the moment after I am ready to laugh heartily with the next one.
“Yes, indeed, I know it,” she spoke quickly. “It almost makes it worth while to suffer for that. You know how much it means to me, how much it helps, don’t you?”
There was an awkward pause. She was waiting for me to take my cue, and I was staring at a mental sign-board, “Dangerous Ground.” I tried to say, “Well, I’m glad,” in a friendly way, but, to my infinite disgust, my voice broke. She caught the note, as of suppressed emotion. With wide eyes she looked at me as if she would read my soul: her flat bosom heaved, then suddenly she leaned forward and her voice was tense.
“Horace,” she breathed, “do you love me?”
Now, when a female asks an unprotected male if he loves her there can be only two answers: Yes or No. If No, a scene follows in which he feels like a brute. If Yes, he saves her feelings and gives Time a chance to straighten things out. The situation is embarrassing and calls for delicate handling. I am sadly lacking in moral courage, and kindness of heart has always been my weakness. To say “No” would be to deal a deathblow to this woman’s hope, to leave her crushed and broken, to drive her to despair, perhaps even to suicide. Besides—it would be awfully impolite.
“Perhaps I’d better humour her,” I thought. So I too leaned forward, and in the same husky voice I answered, “Stella, how can you ask?”
“Cora,” she corrected gently. I was rather taken aback. Yet I am not the first man who has called the lady of the moment by the name of her predecessor. It is one of life’s embarrassing situations. However, I went on:
“Cora, how could you guess?”
“How does a woman know these things?” she answered passionately. “Could I not read it in your eyes alone?”