Page:Anthony John (IA anthonyjohn00jero).pdf/178

 capital. You can take that from me." She laughed.

Betty looked at her. "You would have me injure him?" she said.

"Yes; to save him from her," answered the other, "she has changed him already. There are times when I don't seem to know him. She will ruin him if she has her way. Save him. You can."

The woman's vehemence had exhausted her. She dropped back into her chair.

"Listen," said the girl. "I do love your son. I love him so well that if he and this girl really loved one another and I was sure of it, I would do all I could to help him to marry her. It all depends upon that: if they really love one another."

The woman made to speak, but the girl silenced her with a gesture.

"Let me try and explain myself to you," she said, "because after tonight we must never talk about this thing again. I should have been very happy married to Anthony. I knew he did not love me. There is a saying that in most love affairs one loves and the other consents to be loved. That was all I asked of him. I did not think he was capable of love—not in the big sense of the word. I thought him too self-centred, too wrapped up in his ambition. I thought that I could make him