“That is a reproach I do not deserve, Merton,” she returned.
“I am not reproaching you, dear, but myself for giving you pain.”
“Have I shown myself so hard to please, so ready to take offence, that you know the signs of disapproval so well?”
“No, Connie; on the contrary. But my eyes are quick to see disapproval, as yours are quick to see anything wrong in me. And I would not have it different.” After a while he continued, a little anxiously, “Do you think our visitor—I mean Eden, for I care nothing about Fan—noticed any signs of—noticed what you did?”
“How can I tell, Merton? He looked a little tired, I thought.”
“Did he look tired? And yet I think I talked well.” She made no reply, and he continued, “Of course, Connie, you thought I seemed too excited—that I had been taking stimulants. Is it not so?”
“Yes, I thought that,” she replied, averting her eyes, and in a tone of deep pain. “Oh, Merton, is this going to continue until it grows into a habit? It will break my heart!”
“My dear girl, you needn't imagine anything so terrible. You can trust me to keep my word. I shall become a total abstainer; not because alcohol has now or ever can have any fatal attraction for me, but solely because you wish it, Connie. I confess that to-day I came home unusually excited, but it was not because I had exceeded. It was because I had met with an unexpected stroke of good luck. When I met Eden to-day, and was telling him about my new career and my struggles as a beginner, he at once very kindly offered to lend me fifty pounds to assist me.”
“And are you going to borrow money from your friend?”
“I should not think of asking him for money; but when he offered me this small sum—for to him it is small—I could not think of refusing. It would have been foolish when our funds are so low, and I shall soon be in a position to repay him.”