"'Isn't it very nice of me to allow you to dissect me like this?' she
said at last, as I came to a temporary standstill, and looked at her
in silence. 'You see,' she went on, laughing, 'that I have no foolish
over-sensitiveness about my friendship. Many a woman would shut her
door on you by way of punishing you for your impertinence.'
"'You could banish me without needing to give me the reasons for your
harshness.' As I spoke I felt that I could kill her if she dismissed
me.
"'You are mad,' she said, smiling still.
"'Did you never think,' I went on, 'of the effects of passionate
love? A desperate man has often murdered his mistress.'
"'It is better to die than to live in misery,' she said coolly. 'Such
a man as that would run through his wife's money, desert her, and
leave her at last in utter wretchedness.'
"This calm calculation dumfounded me. The gulf between us was made
plain; we could never understand each other.
"'Good-bye,' I said proudly.
"'Good-bye, till to-morrow,' she answered, with a little friendly
bow.
"For a moment's space I hurled at her in a glance all the love I must
forego; she stood there with than banal smile of hers, the detestable
chill smile of a marble statue, with none of the warmth in it that it
seemed to express.
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