It occurred to him that he should feel safer with Stephen removed to a distance; if he stayed in Benson there was always the danger that he might blunder into a knowledge of the advantage he had taken of Virginia.
“And you can do nothing?”
“For Stephen? I fear not, Virginia.”
“Are you not interested in Marian?” she asked.
Benson shrugged his shoulders.
“Perhaps I should regret it; but such ties mean very little to me; and they are meaning less and less all the time.”
“You have changed,” she said almost resentfully. “Once I could come to you feeling that you would do all in your power—”
“You still may,” he interrupted quickly.
“No, it is not as it was. I have not the same confidence.”
He bit his lip.