Page:Barbour--Peggy in the rain.djvu/220

 of girl to take you without the formality prescribed for such cases."

"The mischief was already done," he muttered. "I—I was fond of her the first time I saw her; that day in the woods."

"Fond! Couldn't you have denied yourself that much? You'd have saved yourself a lot of trouble."

"I'm not sure I wouldn't do it again, if I knew what I know now," he replied. "I'm rotten miserable, and yet" "But does it occur to you to think that possibly she may be unhappy, too?"

"Yes. And yet—oh, I don't know! Perhaps she's all over it by now."

"Let us hope so," she said. He flashed a look at her. "No? You don't agree with me? You'd rather have her unhappy?"

"No—oh, I hardly know, Leona. Only, if she really cared for me, why couldn't she have"

He paused. "God knows I'd have been good to her. There'd never have been another woman, Leona."

"Um; perhaps. The trouble would have been that if there had been another woman she'd have