"What disgrace?" asked Cornish.
"Oh," she said, "you—you----"
"There's only this about that," said he. "Of course, if you loved him very much, then I'd ought not to be talking this way to you. But I didn't think—"
"You didn't think what?"
"That you did care so very much—about him. I don't know why."
She said: "I wanted somebody of my own. That's the reason I done what I done. I know that now."
"I figured that way," said Cornish.
They dismissed it. But now he brought to bear something which he saw that she should know.
"Look here," he said, "I'd ought to tell you. I'm—I'm awful lonesome myself. This is no place to live. And I guess living so is one reason why I want to get married. I want some kind of a home."
He said it as a confession. She accepted it as a reason.