themselves and the man.

"Can you stay away?" she whispered. "Can you?"

"It is the one thing I can do."

"Do you realize what you are saying?--that you have put me aside for
ever? Are you willing to admit that it is all over? How am I to live
on and on and on? Can you fancy me alone next summer in the
Adirondacks--"


"Hush! Hush! Do you wish me to come? Answer me honestly, without any
feminine subterfuge."

"No, I do not."
"And I should not come if you did, for I know the price we both should
pay better than you do, and only complete happiness could justify such
a step. You and I could find happiness in marriage only--we both
demand too much! But I also know that the higher faculties of the mind
do not always prevail, and I shall not see you alone again."

She pushed him further. "You take this philosophically because you
have loved before and recovered. You feel sure that no love lasts."

"When a man loves as I love you, he has no past. There are no
experiences alive in his memory to help him to philosophy. With the
entire world the last love is the only love. As for myself, I shall
not love again and I shall not recover."