Page:Barbour--Peggy in the rain.djvu/221

 had no chance. After all, marriage has that advantage; it gives her the right to fight. I don't think I'd blame Peggy for not falling into your arms on your terms, Gordon. Perhaps you would have been always kind and always cared, but she may have doubted it. I should myself. She'd have been giving a good deal for just the honor of being pointed out as 'Gordon Ames's girl,' wouldn't she?"

"I've never blamed her. If I'd felt that way I'd have followed her. She was right. Circumstances were against us, that's all."

"Circumstances," she mused. "Well, perhaps you're right. Perhaps I've been too hard on you. We are tied, we folks with money. Only"

"Only?" he prompted.

She smiled whimsically. "Only I wish I had your chance, Gordon!"

"You could do no more than I've done," he said tiredly.

"Possibly not. I don't know. It's easy to lay out a course for somebody else, isn't it? Is that the Siren's launch coming down the harbor?"

Gordon looked. "Yes. I hope I haven't bored you too much?"