"I am happy."
"With that face, child! There was a woman once—perhaps you know her—whose lover went away and never came back. Perhaps he was dead; perhaps he had forgotten. You look as if your lover had never come back."
Pamela covered her face with her hands.
"There, child! I don't want to distress you, but I am in trouble about you. What if he came back, after all?"
"He never will."
"He looked as if he would. Anyhow, if he never did, it would be better to be like that woman—a little cracked, perhaps, and always expecting her lover, till she woke up one day dying, and in her right mind—it would be better to be like her than to marry without love."
Pamela trembled, but her face was hidden.
"Tell me, Pam. You won't mind confiding in an old woman who has only a few days more to live. What did you do it for? It wasn't the money, and all it could bring, attracted you?"
"Tell me, Pam. You won't mind confiding in an old woman."