Page:Ann Veronica, a modern love story.djvu/327

 Capes, do you think... do you think I don't know the meaning of love?"

Part 4
Capes made no answer for a time.

"My mind is full of confused stuff," he said at length. "I've been thinking—all the afternoon. Oh, and weeks and months of thought and feeling there are bottled up too.... I feel a mixture of beast and uncle. I feel like a fraudulent trustee. Every rule is against me—Why did I let you begin this? I might have told—"

"I don't see that you could help—"

"I might have helped—"

"You couldn't."

"I ought to have—all the same.

"I wonder," he said, and went off at a tangent. "You know about my scandalous past?"

"Very little. It doesn't seem to matter. Does it?"

"I think it does. Profoundly."

"How?"

"It prevents our marrying. It forbids—all sorts of things."

"It can't prevent our loving."

"I'm afraid it can't. But, by Jove! it's going to make our loving a fiercely abstract thing."

"You are separated from your wife?"

"Yes, but do you know how?"

"Not exactly."

"Why on earth—? A man ought to be labelled. You see, I'm separated from my wife. But she doesn't