Page:The Fruit of the Tree (Wharton 1907).djvu/390

Rh white as if she had been under the stress of physical pain.

“So you have written my husband to come back?”

“As you see.”

Bessy looked her straight in the eyes. “I am very much obliged to you—extremely obliged!”

Justine met the look quietly. “Which means that you resent my interference”

“Oh, I leave you to call it that!” Bessy mocked, tossing the letter down on the table at her side.

“Bessy! Don’t take it in that way. If I made a mistake I did so with the hope of helping you. How can I stand by, after all these months together, and see you deliberately destroying your life without trying to stop you?”

The smile withered on Bessy’s lips. “It is very dear and good of you—I know you’re never happy unless you’re helping people—but in this case I can only repeat what my husband says. He and I don’t often look at things in the same light—but I quite agree with him that the management of such matters is best left to—to the persons concerned.”

Justine hesitated. “I might answer that, if you take that view, it was inconsistent of you to talk with me so openly. You’ve certainly made me feel that you wanted help—you’ve turned to me for it. But perhaps that does not justify my writing to Mr. Amherst without your knowing it.” [ 374 ]