“How can I,” he answered, slowly, “with——”
“With my reputation,” she caught up, quickly, as he paused. “Do not try to spare me—now. Can’t you hear—can’t you see, now, that I am speaking the truth?”
He gazed at her without answering.
“Oh, I can read in your eyes that you do not. I want you to believe me. Can’t you believe—even that?”
He shook his head half smilingly.
“You do not know all that I have heard,” he answered.
“Who can have been so unfair—so cruel? I—I never wanted to be believed so before. Oh, you think that is only a part of it; that the habit is so strong with me—that I am only flattering.”
“If I have been—warned,” Leeds continued.
“As if I were a peril—an evil——”
“Perhaps you might be,” he muttered.