"Well, if he does? You still don't love him?"
"I don't know. He fascinates me.... But that doesn't matter, I've given him my promise——"
"It seems to me to matter very much," Loring interposed drily. "I've grown quite fond of you lately, Babs, and I don't want to see you unhappily married. Or him, either. You say you don't know whether you're in love with him, but there's a simple test: if you were free in every way and could choose among all the men in the world, would you fly to Jack like an arrow to a target?"
"I don't know.... I think he might make me come to him."
"Against your will? Babs, you've either lost all your personality or else you're in love with him."
She shook her head in perplexity, frowning and smoothing out the wrinkles with the back of her hand.
"I don't know that it would be against my will. I can't make out. He never loved me as I wanted to be loved.... I never feel that Jack could be gentle.... Do you know what I mean, Jim? There are some people who seem to take loving for granted. They can't waste time on the little daily tendernesses that are the glorious great tendernesses...." Her voice faded away, and she sat staring in front of her until a change of thought made her face resolute. "But it's not for me to find fault. If he wants me...."
"I wish to God I could do something to help," said Loring.
"I must just wait, I suppose. I wish I knew what I wanted.... Sometimes I feel I'm going mad, Jim. I can't get rid of his eyes, I can't forget the change that came over him when he began to understand what I'd done.... Has he gone back to camp? When d'you think he'll write?"