“Remember,” she adjured him; “success was my prescription. Be flattering for once. Let me think that I’m responsible for the miracle.”
“Perhaps. I couldn’t stay out there—afterward. The loneliness....”
“I didn’t want to leave you loneliness,” she burst out passionately under her breath. “I wanted to leave you memory and ambition and the determination to succeed.”
“For what?”
“Oh, no; no!” She answered the harsh thought subtending his query. “Not for myself. Not for any pride. I’m not cheap, Ban.”
“No; you’re not cheap.”
“I would have kept my distance.... It was quite true what I said to you about Betty Raleigh. It was not success alone that I wanted for you; I wanted happiness, too. I owed you that—after my mistake.”
He caught up the last word. “You’ve admitted to yourself, then, that it was a mistake?”
“I played the game,” she retorted. “One can’t always play right. But one can always play fair.”
“Yes; I know your creed of sportsmanship. There are worse religions.”