“Why, you are crying, you love me!” he exclaimed naïvely.
She shook her head. A faint smile traversed her quivering lips.
“I don’t know. I’m afraid not.”
Seizing her hands, he showered kisses into the upturned palms. “Anne, Anne, I love you.”
The tremulous smile still lifting her lips, she pushed him from her, and rose to her feet.
“No, Alexis, this won’t do. We must pull ourselves together, or you will have to go.”
He faced her incredulously, as she leaned, pale and enigmatic, against the mantel.
“You wouldn’t send me away now?”
She nodded.
“You would ruin our lives for the sake of a convention?” He strode towards her menacingly. But his melodramatic manner had stirred her dormant cynicism. She laughed.