“No!” between clenched teeth. “I'd—I'd tell you if it did; but it doesn't. Oh, Dick, please be sensible.”
“Don't you think that it ever will?”
“No, I'm sure it won't.”
“Why?”
Maisie rested her chin on her hand, and, still regarding the sea, spoke hurriedly—“I know what you want perfectly well, but I can't give it to you, Dick. It isn't my fault; indeed, it isn't. If I felt that I could care for any one——But I don't feel that I care. I simply don't understand what the feeling means.”
“Is that true, dear?”
“You've been very good to me, Dickie; and the only way I can pay you back is by speaking the truth. I daren't tell a fib. I despise myself quite enough as it is.”
“What in the world for?”
“Because—because I take everything that you give me and I give you nothing in return. It's mean and selfish of me, and whenever I think of it it worries me.”
“Understand once for all, then, that I can manage my own affairs, and if I choose to do anything you aren't to blame. You haven't a single thing to reproach yourself with, darling.”