r be taking you ashore," he said in a
constrained, exasperated tone.

"You don't care if you break my heart," Jenny whispered. "It's all one
to you."

"That's simply not true.... But it's no good discussing it." He had lost
his temper, and was full of impatience. He sat frowning, disliking her,
with resentment and momentary aversion plainly to be seen in his
bearing.

"Just because I don't agree that it's mighty kind of you
to ... condescend!" Jenny was choking. "You thought I should jump
for joy because other women had had you. I don't know what sort of
girl you thought I was."

"Well, I thought ... I thought you were fond of me," Keith slowly said,
making an effort to speak coldly. "That was what I thought."

"Thought I'd stand anything!" she corrected. "And fall on your neck into
the bargain."

"Jenny, old girl.... That's not true. But I thought you'd understand
better than you've done. I thought you'd understand _why_ I told you.
You think I thought I was so sure of you.... I wish you'd try to see a
bit further." He leaned back again, not touching her, but dejectedly
frowning; his face pale beneath the tan. His anger had passed in a
deeper feeling. "I told you because you wanted to know about me. If I'd
been the sort of chap you're thinking I should have told a long George
Washington yarn, pretending to be an innocent hero. Well, I didn't. I'm
not an innocent hero. I'm a man who's knocked about for fifteen years.
You've got the truth. Women don't like the truth. They want a yarn. A
yappy, long, sugar-coated yarn, and lots of protestations. This is all
because I haven't asked you to forgive me--because I haven't sworn not
to do it again if only you'll forgive me. You want to see yourself
forgiving me. On a pinnacle.... Graciously forgiving me--"

"Oh, you're a beast!" cried Jenny. "Let me go home." She rose to her
feet, and stood in deep thought. For a moment Keith remained seated:
then he too rose. They did not look at one another, but with bent heads
continued to reconsider all that had been said.

v

"I've all the time been trying to show you I'm not a beast," Keith urged
at last. "But a human being. It takes a woman to be something above a
human being." He was sneering, and the sneer chilled her.

"If you'd been thinking of somebody for months," she began in a
trembling tone. "Thinking about them all the time, living on it day
after day ... just thinking about them and loving them with all your
he