Page:Georgie by Dorothea Deakin, 1906.djvu/276

"Georgie" races, and Diana would rather die than disobey either her father or her mother. I sha'n't go near her again. The less I see of her now, the better for both of us."

"If she loves you," Drusilla persisted, "she won't let you give her up."

Georgie sighed.

"You're very sweet, Drusie," he said, with a whole-hearted forgetfulness of the past. "You're as true as steel yourself, so you think every other woman the same. But they aren't, and even in the best of them there is something they put before love. Diana's principles come first, and always will. And—" he added loyally, "I'm not sure that I don't admire her for it. I reverence Diana even more than I love her."

"Ah," said Drusilla quietly, "Diana's only a woman, Georgie, and in spite of principles you never quite know what a woman will do. Besides, don't you think you will be rather cruel to keep away from her without giving her an oppor- 260