rgaret--such a woman as that. Why, you're trembling" (he rose and
pulled down her shielding hand), "you're relieved! You have really
dreamed, then, that it might happen!"

"It makes me hate myself," he went on, a mist showing itself in his
eyes--"to see your unselfishness; you have thought of this because you
believe that it would be better for me, that I should be happier. And if
you had succeeded, if it could really have come about, how you would
have lived up to it! To the very last hour of your life you wouldn't
have swerved."

He looked at her; he seemed to be studying her. Then he grew sarcastic
again, perhaps on account of her continued silence. "Garda, on her side,
is perfectly capable of having a real affection for me for a while--real
while it lasts; she hasn't any especial mission on her hands just now,
so that would have done very well. You planned it together, I suppose.
You are certainly a wonderful pair! May I ask how far did the plan
extend? You would have pampered me up between you (she temporarily); you
would have arranged what was 'best' for my life, like two Sunday-school
teachers over a case of reform! Once and for all, Margaret, let us put
Edgarda Thorne aside; she has nothing whatever to do with the matters
that lie between you and me; she is no more to me than an old glove."

He walked about the room impatiently. "Of course I might lie to you," he
went on; "I might say that if you persist in your present
course--keeping me entirely off, separating your life utterly from
mine--I should go to the bad. But it wouldn't be true; I shall not go to
the bad, unless becoming hard and disagreeable is that. Later, if you
still go on in this way, I shall become callous and selfish
probably--self-indulgent. I shall never be vicious or low-lived, I hope;
but I am not a woman, I can't live on air--as you will do. Don't see me
at fifty-five--I'll give you _that_ advice! For _you_ will always remain
the same; with the exception of growing paler and thinner, you'll be the
same till you die; and I really think it would be a greater blow to you
than even what we're bearing now to find me like that--selfish, fond of
my ease, slow to disturb myself for anybody, mightily taken up with my
dinner!--But you don't believe in the least what I am saying to you; I
can't bring it before you. I love you--love you at this moment with
every fibre of my being." He sat down and folded his arms doggedly. "But
I shall not stay sent