“On the contrary, quite final and irrevocable Mr. Ridgway and I have never been lovers. She was not sure whether this last was meant as a confession or a justification.
“Not lovers?” He waited for her to explain Her proud eyes faced him. “We became engaged for other reasons. I thought that did not matter. But I find my other reasons were not sufficient. To-day I terminated the engagement. But it is only fair to say that Mr. Ridgway had come here for that purpose. I merely anticipated him.” Her self-contempt would not let her abate one jot of the humiliating truth. She flayed herself with a whip of scorn quite lost on Hobart.
A wave of surging hope was flushing his heart, but he held himself well in hand.
“I must be presumptuous still,” he said. “I must find out if you broke the engagement because you care for another man?”
She tried to meet his shining eyes and could not. “You have no right to ask that.”
“Perhaps not till I have asked something else. I wonder if I should have any chance if I were to tell you that I love you?”
Her glance swept him shyly with a delicious little laugh. “You never can tell till you try.”