t was only
selfishness, because I wanted to make her like me, but I didn't
realize that till after she was gone."

"Gone?" Eileen encouraged him.

"Yes. She didn't want me to do those things I'd been planning for her.
She wouldn't have what I could do, or me, at any price."

"Did you--had you--told her you _cared_?"

"Great Scott! no. I hadn't got nearly so far as that. I told her I
hoped to see her again, that if there was something I could do to
help, I--but she wasn't taking any. She seemed friendly and kind
before that, which made it worse when she turned me down so hard. I
suppose she hadn't minded much at first, but the more she saw of me
the more she couldn't stand for the shape of my nose or the way I
talked, maybe. She just got to feel that the sight of me hanging
around would poison New York for her, and she intimated that her
health would be better if I kept at the other end of the city. You
wouldn't have had me continue to butt in, would you?"

"I don't know. What happened then?"

"Oh, she went away."

"You let her go?"

"What else could I do?"

"You could have found out where she went in case she changed her mind.
But perhaps you did find out?"

"No. For she didn't seem like the kind of girl who would change her
mind about a kind of fellow like me. Besides, I was sort of stunned by
the difference in her manner just at the moment. When I came to
myself--I mean, about wondering if I could have done anything better,
and realizing what a terrible lot I cared, she was gone. Then I hoped
Ena would hear from her. I think she promised to write. But it appears
that she never did so."

"Is she in New York still?"

"I wish to heaven I knew!"

"Couldn't you find out?"

"I might, if I wanted to be a cad."

"Why--what do you mean?"

"I dare say a private detective would undertake the job. Sometimes
I've been tempted--yet no, I don't believe I ever did come near to
playing the game as low down as that."

"But it might be for her good---"

"That's the way I argued with myself. I almost got myself convinced
sometimes. But I knew in my heart it was only sophistry. You see, it
isn't as if she would let me do anything for her, even if she wanted
anything done, which I've no particular reason to suppose she does.
She's English, and a stranger over here, but she told me--when we were
friends--that she had letters of introduction to good people and that
she'd plenty of money till they found her a job. I