Page:The Fruit of the Tree (Wharton 1907).djvu/559

Rh for having told Mr. Langh0pe. But before I go I want to be sure that you understand the view he may take … and the eﬁect it will probably have on our future.”

“Our future?” She started. “No, I don’t understand.”

Amherst paused a moment, as if trying to choose the words least likely to pain her. “Mr. Langhope knows that my marriage was … unhappy; through my fault, he no doubt thinks. And if he chooses to infer that … that you and I may have cared for each other … before. . . and that it was because there was a chance of recovery that you”

“Oh”

“We must face it,” he repeated inﬂexibly. “And you must understand that, if there is the faintest hint of this kind, I shall give up everything here, as soon as it can be settled legally—God, how Tredegar will like the job!—and you and I will have to go and begin life over again … somewhere else.”

For an instant a mad hope swelled in her—the vision of escaping with him into new scenes, a new life, away from the coil of memories that bound them down as in a net. But the reaction of reason came at once—she saw him cut off from his chosen work, his career destroyed, his honour clouded, above all—ah, this was what wrung them both!—his task undone, his people [ 543 ]