The man laughed, half cynically, yet with a wistful scorn.
“There are many things you do not understand,” he said.
“Reconsider it.”
“I can reconsider nothing.”
Judith shook her head and looked long at him out of her large eyes.
“My heart tells me that all is not well with you,” she said.
Her brother gazed at her with a smile of melancholy tenderness.
“Judith,” he answered her, “why worry yourself over my future. A man may often repent; he can rarely alter. By my own deeds I have made this match inevitable. You can only pain me by suggesting impossibilities. I have incurred a debt—a debt heavier than you can guess. I am happier in doing my duty as a man of honor than I should be in playing the craven. You have the truth.”
Judith hid her eyes from him under her lashes.
“This is a sad world,” she said.