Page:Keeping the Peace.pdf/251

 Ruggles family was about to move to Genoa. Would he join them there?

"Of course you're not going—now. You don't need her any more. You have me."

The slighting insinuation was not lost upon Edward, but he answered patiently. "I think I ought to go, don't you? I don't want to—not now. But they are the oldest friends I have, and I promised and I don't want to hurt their feelings."

"That's for you to say. When there is a question of two women, it is always the man's prerogative to choose between them."

He tried to put his arm around her and was repulsed—with a kind of a cold fury. Anne had about decided to work herself into a rage.

"It is only for a short time," said Edward.

"That's what you say."

"But Anne, don't you believe what I say? I couldn't tell you lies."

"You're in love with her."

"I'm not. I'm in love with you. And she doesn't care that about me . . . Be reasonable."

If he had been more experienced he wouldn't have said, "Be reasonable." He would have picked up the nearest loaded cannon and said, "Go ahead and make a fool of yourself."

She was going to, anyway. And what she managed forthwith to invent and shout aloud concern-